In the last few years, our attention spans have dropped significantly from an average of around two minutes to 45 seconds, making it hard to process anything thoroughly. It starts with the well-known “doomscrolling” that leads to inoffensive actions such as buying the new lululemon set you totally need because it is identical to the old Alo set. We are losing our personal style due to an overwhelming amount of mass media consumption, microtrends and consumerism. Behind these phenomena lies the new standard for women: the slicked back bun, fresh set of nails and neat monochrome athletic outfit known as the “clean girl.”
We feel a need to fall into predetermined categories that make us embody an objectified style and status, which is inevitable when our attention bounces from one trend to another so rapidly. There is no time to process the media we consume, so there is no time to identify what we genuinely feel drawn to. It has become so normalized that we can’t differentiate between what happiness really is and what instant gratification is.
Since the start of this new trend in early 2022, more and more women have become accustomed to the trend unconsciously. I myself have fallen victim to this, when I look at my Owala cup and wonder why I even chose to buy it in the first place. And my conclusion always comes back to the same point: it felt like the right thing to do. When I walk into my 400-person lecture and look around at the desks, with girls carrying the same bottle as mine, I feel a sense of belonging and camaraderie. I don’t feel threatened by judgement because I am ceding to the standard, when deep down I know I wouldn’t have bought it if I hadn’t seen it on social media first.
Part of the clean girl trend also includes unattainable activities advertised to us as good karma. When you wake up at 5 a.m., do your nine-step skincare routine and drink a $10 smoothie, you convince yourself that this is the right start to your day. Since you started the day by performing this predetermined ritual, great things ought to happen now because TikTok said so. The internet has made this generation of women think that by doing these steps, good karma is bound to return to them.
I refer to these routines as unattainable since most of them are not within reach for most social classes. A middle aged woman with an average income cannot afford to pay rent and bills while scheduling daily Pilates lessons and buying food solely from overpriced organic farmer’s markets. What is even more ironic is that activities like these started for people who weren’t able to afford the popular ones at the time but were later gentrified and glorified by the upper class. Consuming such activities and products assumes a correlation with health and happiness.
Although an occasional stroll for fresh organic fruit may cause some excitement, it is not directly causing happiness.
We are slowly turning into a homogeneous society with a lack of individuality, which doesn’t leave much room to reflect on what truly makes us happy. Does the slick back bun and Longchamp bag really bring you fulfillment or is it just filling the void of belonging? We are avoiding reality with “healthy habits” that ultimately lead to nothing (although I won’t deny the benefits of Pilates). Since there is no reason other than superficial and performative behavior behind them, once the clean girl aesthetic proceeds to be another dead trend for the pile, this group of women will proceed to adopt whatever new style Hailey Bieber decides to have that day. What is so wrong with this? The loss of individuality and continuously falling for the objectified boxes society tries to fit women into makes us carbon copies of the latest fad.
Encouraging the effort to find our own interests and personality may sound a little intimidating — because it is. But that is truly the point of self-discovery: experiencing and experimenting. Sure, go hop on a trend to try it out, but remember that a trend isn’t a lifestyle nor personality. As challenging as it sounds, it is important for us to step out of the box and try to discover something on our own. This is crucial for the individuality and advancement of society as a whole. Try a new color combination, read a book you find in the library, listen to a new album or create a new recipe. Regardless of what you do, it should all be from your own decisions, desires and will.