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I'm Alexia Sabau, and this is
KN Explains,
Today we're taking a closer look at the romanticize
your life trend.
What is it?
Why do people do it, and what can we learn from it?
Get your art hats on.
Before we dive in, let's define
the word romanticism.
Romanticism refers to the movement of art and literature
in the late 1700s into the middle of the 1800s
that began in Europe.
Romanticism emphasizes the importance of emotions,
individual feelings and imagination.
Romantic art showed the natural world as beautiful,
powerful and unpredictable.
OK, but what is the trend now?
Romanticize your life takes things to romanticism
like slowing down, slowing down, feeling your emotions
and embracing romantic styles.
[musical chimes]
It's been a concept for a while,
but some time in 2020, this sound started
making the rounds on
Woman:
You have to start thinking of yourself as the main character.
If you don't, life will continue to pass you by.
Since then, it has continued to take off
with some influencers content being completely geared
to showing off their romanticized lives
and telling other people how to recreate them.
Romanticize your life has a lot in common with other trends
like that girl and main character energy.
The main idea behind romanticizing your life
is taking your regular routine and making it romantic.
Kind of like being the main character in a movie.
Content includes mood lighting, frilly dresses, pretty makeup,
ambient music, soft colours, beautiful food.
How can you create this life?
Well, according to bloggers and creators who champion it...
..by slowing down, embracing nature,
being grateful for the little things in life,
learning to bake and cook, reading classic novels,
watching romantic movies and TV shows,
and so much more.
To better understand this trend and different ways
to look at it, we turn to media experts,
including...
I am Aimée Morrison, Associate Professor of English
at the
My name is Jessalyn Keller.
I'm an associate professor at the
and I study feminism in media culture.
I fart around on the Internet for a living,
and then I explain it to people.
Experts think that this trend became popular during
the pandemic because lots of people were struggling
with being stuck indoors and not having control
over their day to day routines.
I think this is the kind of movement where people want
to share it with others because it's a lifestyle that
they think will bring positive change to others.
It all seems pretty nice, right?
But critics have pointed out some flaws and possible
negatives of this trend.
One critic is Olivia Sun.
Her commentary on
behind making this video.
Is romanticizing your life, turning you
into a happier person or a happier character?
One of the criticisms of Romanticize Your Life
is that it is Eurocentric.
Eurocentrism means things that are focused or centered around
European and Western cultures.
You're focusing on that culture only,
and then you kind of forget about all of the other cultures
that exist and that people take part in.
If we dig even deeper,
there's lots that we can learn about society and social media
from this trend.
People can romanticize their lives without reporting
and uploading it to their socials,
but a lot of people who engage in it seem to like sharing
their experiences.
Yes, but that's not really
what this trend is, is about, right?
It's about doing that through posting these types of videos
or images, right?
When we share our lives on social media that
can sometimes be called performative?
Performative is basically a fancy academic way
of describing how people perform their lives and identities
for others.
When we upload a video to
we know that other people see it.
So how we portray ourselves and our lives can be seen
as a performance for our audience.
And I know that most of the time
people say they do it for themselves,
but I always have a little bit of suspicion on how true
that is because if it was truly just for yourself,
then why do you feel the need to like,
make, edit a whole video and then post it online
and then consistently make videos about it to show people?
Of course, real life is not like the movies.
We can't all be Rory Gilmore or
In movies and TV there are whole crews of people
making things look just right.
But for a regular person, that kind of effort is kind of
hard to do on the daily.
For some, romanticizing in the very specific way that
is popular online is completely out of reach.
I would kind of hold a critical lens to it and say,
who can be the main character in their own lives, right?
Is this something that's actually on offer to everyone?
OK, but you might be thinking,
hey, Alexia, what's wrong
with wanting to be the main character?
Having a positive outlook and doing things to boost
self-esteem can be a good thing,
but relationship and mental health experts say that
thinking of yourself as the center of all the action
can also cause some problems.
For example, if we think of ourselves
as the main character, that can cause conflict
with some people and family and friends
might start to feel like a sidekick or just a prop.
I think sometimes being the main character
is a sort of, kind of overvaluation
of your own importance in the world.
In reaction to Main Character
and Romanticize Your Life trends
Some people have started to create counter trends,
like hashtag, Not The Main Character.
Aimée Morrison says this sort of reaction is common with trends.
As things become more popular and mainstream, more people
want to start to push against it.
And that's why trends come and then they go.
They play out, right? "Oh, that's so played out."
Nobody's doing it any more.
What's even the point of analyzing social trends?
Isn't it just for fun?
The point of critically thinking about trends is not
to shame or call out the people who make or like the content,
but as consumers of social media,
thinking about the reasons behind trends
can build awareness and boost our media literacy.
Sometimes the reason for a post can be pretty obvious,
like when an influencer poses with their product
and puts the hashtag ad.
Other times posts, even from our close friends,
might be trying to sell an idea of real life
that's only part of the picture.
Just don't take things at their face value.
The best question that you can ask when
you're looking at trends we take for granted is just
the simple question of why.
So if you want to Romanticize Your Life, go for it.
But remember, there's always more than what meets the eye.
[ding]
That's it for
For
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A lot of behind the scenes work and research
went into making this video.
First off, I'd like to thank Aimée Morrison, Jessalyn Keller,
and Olivia Sun for their interviews and expertise.
I also reference information from...
..
plus videos on
and various other blogs gave me an inside look at this trend.
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