Haley Nahman

ALT “Do you think that people use aesthetics as a way to cope with stress and capitalism? For example, there are tons of YouTube videos about how to write ‘aesthetic notes’ when you are in college taking hard classes, and viral TikToks of people just restocking their fridges in a very aesthetically pleasing way. It feels like aesthetics are being applied to almost every facet of life these days and it goes way beyond fashion, makeup, etc. Do you have any thoughts on this?” Per your first question, I think organization makes perfect sense as a coping mechanism: When things feel chaotic and out of our control, we look for ways to invite order and control back into the situation. But I think what you’re getting at with the rest of your question is something different. The desire to aestheticize our everyday lives is a more complicated impulse. It feels inextricably tied to modern society’s obsession with images, and the increasing extent to which we use them to understand ourselves, or a