aesthetic – The Concordian

“Life was so much simpler” is a myth, I promise

If you never said it yourself, you probably heard someone say it at some point: “I was born in the wrong decade.”

The feeling seems more popular than ever now that archival footage has found its way on TikTok and you can see videos like “what was life like in the ’70s” filled with comments saying they were born in the wrong generation.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with thinking that our present time sucks. Between a pandemic, a war and a scary political landscape, it seems not much good has come out of this decade so far.

Not to mention the easy argument of technology and social media. “Wouldn’t it be so much easier in a time when social media wasn’t around?”

But what’s so wrong about technology? It is responsible for great innovations in science and medicine which makes it so that most minor injuries, infections or diseases are treatable and curable.

You’re probably sick of what’s going on with the world right now and yearn for a time you’ve only heard about in stories from older family members or through film.

Does that mean we should go back in time? Like, to a time when women couldn’t vote? Or when racial segregation was instilled in every institution?

No. I’ll tell you now, what you saw on Bewitched, Happy Days and The Brady Bunch is not what living in the ’60s and ’70s was like for everyone.

I’m sick of the romanticization of some founding decades of the 20th century. It’s one thing to talk about the fashion or the history, but to say you wish to have been born at that time just comes from a place of privilege.

From what I understand, the sentiment comes from either of two thought processes: “I like the good parts and never thought through the bad parts” or “I thought about the bad parts and I realized I wouldn’t be affected.”

You might like the music, fashion, or aesthetics of a different time, but you were not born in the wrong decade.

Are they really worth the time and energy?

Whether you love it or hate it, back-to-school season is here. This also means that back-to-school content is flooding your Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok accounts.

Although I love a good “tips and tricks” guide on how to be successful in school, I can’t help but notice it’s always the same advice, given by the same Type A people.

Getting ready to go back to school now is not just about making sure your pencil is sharpened, but also ensuring that all aspects of your life are in order before beginning this new chapter.

You have to clean out your work space, test out all your pens, buy new supplies, have healthy breakfast and lunch ideas ready, all to guarantee an even better student lifestyle.

Having your life organized makes sense to start the new school year, but why do we often feel the need to be so aesthetic in our organization?

In this digital age, a digital cleanse of all our unneeded documents, photos, contacts, etc., on all our devices is also necessary.

Speaking of devices, the iPad-for-note-taking craze is upon us. Maybe I’m late to the trend but I have to admit I tried it last year and it really has changed my life for the better.

My back is thanking me for carrying just a small tablet that contains all my readings and notes for five classes.

You could tell me that since people have been typing notes on their laptops for years now, what’s so special about the iPad? Well, let me tell you, the iPad has an aesthetic that the laptop doesn’t.

As someone who always liked to doodle, highlight and annotate my readings, I can do that with my iPad and still feel the satisfaction of writing on a good old piece of paper — almost.

I’m not the only iPad note-taker who will advocate for this; it’s what all the studying content online will tell you, too.

Whether it’s on their tablet or in a notebook, the experts in note-taking all have one thing in common: their notes are aesthetically pleasing.

But does looking at pretty notes really equal better studying?

In a study conducted by neurobiologists Tomohiro Ishizu and Semir Zeki, subjects were presented with visual art while they listened to music. They would then rate the songs and art pieces in order to measure whether their brain activity changed or increased once put in contact with stimuli they considered “beautiful.”

The study found that when looking at something they found beautiful, brain activity intensified for the subjects, including increased blood-flow in the medial orbito-frontal cortex, which has been associated with reward, pleasure and judgment.

So on top of just finding them pretty, looking at aesthetically-pleasing notes might give us a sense of accomplishment and reward, but this does not automatically mean we will retain information better.

A lot of the time, aesthetically pleasing notes are more than just pretty; they’re organized, detailed and colour-coded — all of which helps people to review the material better.

On the flip side, you can have detailed, organized and well-structured notes without them being aesthetically pleasing.

So why does all the studying content we see online have such a focus on aesthetics?

After reading the aforementioned study I realized that for me, it might be to feel a little sense of control in what seems like an overwhelming challenge: university.

Even though I know deep down that it doesn’t do anything for me academically, I will continue to try my best at calligraphy and highlighting my sub-titles this semester just to make me feel better.