Aesthetics are Deceiving

My internal panic alarm rung exactly at 12:26 this afternoon, when I realized that it was a Saturday. It was my turn to write, edit and put up a blogpost by 12 midnight, and I hadn’t even started!

This panic then manifested into my actions as I frantically texted Shruti about my situation, who as usual, did not reply. I then tweeted about my desperation, scrolled through Instagram and Facebook, and it was 2:30 by the time I managed to shut down all my distractions and start writing. It then took me another hour of brainstorming on what to write. So I went on to Pinterest for help.

As usual, Pinterest was full of aesthetically pleasing posts on blogging. I scrolled through several eye-catching titles such as “10 Mistakes Every Blogger Makes” and “Ideas to Try In your First Month Of Blogging”.  Colourful, bright posts; I was hooked. It was like in Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, when they enter into the Lair of the Lotus-Eaters. I didn't want to leave, even though I had a deadline to meet.

Aesthetics are like sirens; they lure you with their pretty looks. You only see the magical, happy, shallow regions. Pinterest made blogging look like that scene from Sex and the City, where Carrie Bradshaw writes her column in her pretty, uptown New York apartment, while staring out of the window, and fancy music playing in the background.

My hair was up in a greasy bun. I was wearing a drab green shirt and white pajama pants, and my only background music was the constant whirring of the fan. 

When people saw the Meghan Trainor’s song “All About That Base” music video, they only saw the lovely pastel aesthetic that had been used. What no one saw was the effort behind it. The costume design, the set, the editing, and the effort that people had put in, all went unnoticed. And it’s true, no one wants to see the ugly behind the aesthetic.

I try to make my blog aesthetically pleasing. If it was not, no one would ever look at it. But I know now, that nothing is as aesthetic as people make it out to be. 

So I wrote about it.