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We are all performative to some degree — some more than others. This performance can take many forms: political, professional, emotional. But here, I want to focus on a particular strain: aesthetic performativity, especially in its excessive form.

There’s no shame in it; we all have our aesthetic rituals. We might belong to a subculture, cultivate a distinctive style, arrange our homes in a certain way, or frame the world through a preferred photographic lens. The trouble begins when this performance becomes so deeply entwined with one’s identity that personal worth —both one’s own and that of others— is equated with aesthetic alignment, and taste is treated as a proxy for character.

In the real world, I often notice this behavior among lifestyle influencers and within certain artistic social media circles. Increasingly, many of these individuals are having children, and those children, willingly or not, become actors —or props— within the aesthetic narrative. This raises troubling questions. How might growing up inside such a curated world shape their perception of reality? Will they learn that affection and approval come more readily when they “look good”? Will they develop separate public and private selves? One day, will they resent their parents for commodifying private moments?

The “child” can also represent the inner self of any adult. Imagine, for instance, a sudden dystopian twist: a catastrophic digital event wipes out social media overnight. Servers crash, networks vanish, and the stage for constant performance disappears. Without an audience, where would these hyper-performative individuals derive their sense of worth? Would they still orient themselves around the same aesthetic values, or would their carefully crafted identities crumble without the mirror of public validation?