I will admit that I have a really bad habit of trying to quantify my personal tastes. Whenever I look at anything- movies, books or paintings, I have two immediate urges; First, I have to be able to rate whatever I find on a scale, and second I have to be able to explain exactly why I like it or don’t like it. I can never just say, “I like this thing”- I have to say “I enjoy this thing because I feel like it has impacted my life in a way and I feel like I can always return back to it.” The result of this is snobbiness. People hate to watch movies with me because I make comments. I get upset when people don’t understand a book the same way I do. I get told that I rant in incessant monologues when it comes to my interests. To everyone’s detriment my selectiveness is one defining feature of my personality.
Because of the internet, trying to “find” one’s personality has become much more popular. You can find out if you are a Type A or Type B person, what type of “pretty” you are, how basic you are, which characters you are most like, what song describes you and a variety of many little things. Indulging in these things can be fun for a short while, but treating these assignments like law creates problems. Although looking through such things creates a sense of community for the people who share the same interests, it also creates limitations when people are pressured to stay in their category or move out of it.
The two houses of taste
A good example of this is movie taste. If a person’s taste consists of more “basic” movies, they can be written off as bland, yet to realize that actual taste could be attained if they just went and searched for anything obscure. The opposite of this is film fanatics, who pride themselves on preferring only cinematic marvels that have been praised throughout the course of history. These people can be seen as obnoxious because they pride themselves about having more knowledge about movies than the average person, and they sometimes make a point to show how much more “superior” their taste is, even if they don’t understand the content of what they are watching.
And it’s not just movies. All trends usually have two houses that follow them. The first is the fans, who follow trends with an almost religious fixation solely because of the fact that they are “in”. The second follows quickly after, and it consists of people who cry that nobody is being authentic. The fear of not being authentic leads to the trend being thrown out, but people now need to find a new innovative way to show how cool they are and then a new trend is created. This has always been true, but the internet made the pace of trends much faster.
The trend cycle and subcultures
Last year, there was a trend pertaining to men. “Performative” men dress in trending streetwear, drink iced coffees or matcha and pretend to read philosophical books in order to get girls. The trend started out as a fun joke, with people making fun of the style and using it to identify the performative people in their lives as part of a fun jest. Then, the joke started to stop, with being deemed ‘performative” being seen as a genuine threat to one’s reputation. So, in response to the trend, men started to wear quarter zip ups which were deemed as more “mature” and ‘professional’ than streetwear. That trend lasted shorter than being performative because people could see the correlation much faster, and the clothing item was seen more as a fad for teenage boys then the men they were trying to be. The people tried to bring the overcoat back for whatever reason and the whole cycle fizzled out unceremoniously.
Because of the speed with which backlash arrives and people move on, the trend cycle has now become so derailed that it’s considered unconventional if a new trend lasts more than two months. Culture is now created in a giant flaming hamster wheel of instant commodities and it’s such a surreal sight that a lot of people make a point to ignore trends entirely. Those people can end up creating subcultures.
Subcultures are not new, but they are gaining more exposure due to the internet. From fandom culture to fashion, there are now many new communities that people can find exposure in. Because of their communal nature most subcultures exist outside of the flow of trends. If a subculture becomes most popular because of a trend, not much changes about the subculture itself, just who is participating in it. This creates an environment of a group of people who are participating in the same interests that is generally less toxic than the environment of popular culture. However, that doesn’t mean toxicity isn’t present. Conflicts within communities can lead to harsh infighting and many subcultures are judged harshly by the mainstream. People in these subcultures face the risk of being judged by their peers because of their interests, and fear of judgement can stop people from participating.
What’s authentic?
So, there’s no winning. Everyone is trying to figure out where they fit in the world, but no one has any idea how to do so. We create our own boxes, and those boxes can lead to people feeling like they don’t know where they fit in the world. There has been a lot of commentary made about how conformity is created in societies, but no one seems to have concrete answers on how to confront it. Many people prefer not to confront anything.
So, what could people do? The first thing is to address what authenticity even is. The idea that authenticity involves having a specific type of taste is antithetical to the idea of it because it pushes for only one way to live. Do whatever you want, but be intentional with everything that you decide to partake in. If a person really wants to find out what they like, they need to go out and find it. Look into everything you think is cool, look into everything you think is cute, look into things you usually never would otherwise. Whatever piques interest. If people think that what you are interested in is weird, ignore them. They are probably facing the same issues as everyone else with finding their identity. Don’t be so determined to pick one thing and stay with it forever either. People change over time, and it’s the same with taste. An identity is not something to be “found”, but something to be created.
No one has everything figured out. People have to struggle, people face changes and in a society where people feel pressured to follow one path or other it’s easy to just follow what everyone else is doing. But you are your own person, and you don’t need strict definitions for your identity. Personal taste is just one part of your humanity. Don’t let anyone tell you who to be.
