New Trend I am Falling For: Smart Girl is the New It Girl
Smart girl aesthetic is trending right now. Lets talk about how to make it last.
Hello lovies. I hope you are having a good day! I am here again for my daily 15 minute writing practice, timer is going so lets go!
Today I want to talk about the Smart Girl Aesthetic and how its more than a trend for me (hopefully). I have been seeing a lot on here and other social media highlighting the aesthetic of studying in a cafe, or being well read, or the Carrie Bradshaw aesthetic of being a writer. I am here to say that even though this is a trend, we need to let it happen. It is low impact, there is little to no harm coming out of this trend. Its pushing individuals to read classic works, be active in news consumption, and develop critical/creative thinking skills. How could this be bad? Its not like other trends that push us all to buy the same outfit, same perfume or the same IDENTITY.
Critical thinking is what makes everyone so interesting and its is a muscle I am trying to regrow this year while also trying to train myself to love learning again. The first step to my plan is setting the following goals in my academic life.
(1) I will not be using Chat GPT this semester. In the past I used it to supplement my work, stuff like grammar and sentence structure or I just liked using it to bounce ideas off of. Now I am making it a point to not use it at all, because to be honest it is a slippery slope from supplemental help to total reliance. If you read yesterday’s post, I mentioned my thesis topic is about the very damage that AI software is bringing onto our media landscape, permanently altering political and intercultural communication. So it is important that I stick to this one or I would be a hypocrite. I am about two weeks in and I haven’t logged on once!
(2) I am writing for 15 minutes a day! Obviously I will be doing that here. I think this grows a confidence in my writing that I was missing while I wasn’t using Substack. Assuming I follow through on some of my other goals, I will use this platform to write about the things I learn in my critical thinking journey.
(3) I need to consume more educational or intellectual media. Whether this be more news like reading the NYTimes (I am so mad about the paywall for the mini crossword by the way) or listening to the podcasts I shared yesterday from that other Substack creator, or reading more classic books that I read in high school but actually pay attention to their message. If you have any books to recommend let me know!
Those are all my goals! Pretty easy (again hopefully), but I have wandered so far away from this for a number of reasons i’m sure. I’m not going to be that hard on myself since most of society is like this; I mean we are living in a society that is quite literally creating every possible barrier between us and knowledge, if you know what I mean. I use social media and TV to distract from everything that is going on in the world, and I know I am not the only one. But we need to buck up, open those books, and listen to what each other has to say.
So how do we make sure this lasts? Well I am going to start by following these goals. I think that will help me maintain a habit of using my own brain and foster some of that curiosity back in. I am no expert, I am just a college student about to embark on a difficult journey. But, I want to earn it and I want to make it count. I also want to combat the AI media landscape that is taking over right now, embodying that Hermione, Smart Girl Aesthetic is a one way ticket to the rebellion my friends.
Let me know if you have any tips, “clean media” recommendations or anything else you would like to share with me!
Thank you guys for being here! Write again soon, Smooches!!!!
Makenna <3