notes on uniqueness
internet-core
internet-core is a curated collection of aestheticized niches — obscure enough that your specialness is apparent but mainstream enough that you sound cool when you claim membership (extra points if it’s partly ironic too, earnesty is gross and pretentious)—when a previously underground artist you enjoyed suddenly becomes a mainstream pop star, and they lose all appeal. maybe it’s envy. or resentment. “why couldn’t there just be one song untouched by the unfathomable wrath tiktok’s over-saturation”.
maybe it’s just some kind of natural order; identity crises exist regardless of generation, but gen z grew up on the internet; the age of vine, early reaction youtube, and that one blue and black (or white and gold?) dress. in a literal sense, everything feels the original, no one has thought my exact thoughts verbatim, so i’m unique. but i’m not. uniqueness inherently needs exclusivity to function, if everyone is unique no one is, or at least that’s how it feels. maybe i’m projecting.
in 4th grade i distinctly remember seeing older kids show up in the crop top-leggings-choker-combo, as if attempting to perfectly emulate the insta-baddie sub-culture on their pre-pubescent bodies. it was a very forced brand of conformity that went unquestioned, until new trends came along (now we collectively cringe at the emoji key-chains and galaxy print of the era).
maybe it’s a general change in values; gen z is pretty disillusioned with a lot of general conformity but has essentially given up on doing anything about it. so, as “cores” cycles in and out, we fall for it, because it is perfectly manufactured brand of individuality we can embody without effort— it is a guide to originality. as of writing this, the top aesthetics i've observed are downtown girl, coquette, and indie sleaze, but before that, there were vsco girls, e-girls. i think we’ve slowly transitioned from __-girls, to __-cores.
i don’t know if any of this has a point, but things rarely do anyways. my current coping mechanism is rewatching “the hunger” by contrapoints and crying. i will now proclaim this contrapoints-and-crying-core and it will be so popular and cool, that i will become too popular and cool for it.