We hear a lot about aesthetics today. Everyone wants to have that eye pleasing Instagram that makes everyone jealous of their life and show their #artsy side. But, what actually even makes a good aesthetic? Are they just for social media? Is an aesthetic a lifestyle? If I don't get at least 100 likes on my next Insta post, do I have a bad aesthetic?

So here are my steps to getting a great aesthetic:

Step 1: Pick a color scheme.

If who you are is every color of the rainbow, great. But that doesn't work for social media. Try to keep your pictures in similar filters and colors. The more your pictures match, the more put-together your life will seem. But, just try to pick a scheme that is easy on the eyes, it's better for the likes.

Step 2: Do things that people think are cool.

This right here is a major key to a good aesthetic. Gram the cool things you do even if you maybe do them once a year because your family insisted you quit playing Xbox or that you quit scrolling through Tumblr. People are never going to see you as cool if you don't have cool hobbies.

^^^^ First picture that ever got me over 100 likes, guess I had to climb a mountain in a foreign country for that.

Step 3: Show how clever you are through your captions.

Instagram is all about the captions, man. Keep them short and sweet, but also clever. Try not to get to emotional in them and let the pictures do the talking. Maybe the only place accepting of all your stupid puns is Instagram, but try to keep them actually funny. Hashtags must remain to a minimum so you don't look too desperate for followers and try to keep them ironic or comedic if possible. Captions are for showing how smart you can actually be, use them to your advantage.

^^^^ Honestly, I was just really proud of this caption... and all the donuts I bought.

Step 4: Always let your friends help pick the filter.

Possibly the most important part because if your pictures aren't aesthetically pleasing, no one will even take the time to look at your captions or even care what you're doing. You wouldn't go on a first date without having your friends help pick out an outfit, so why would you post on social media for the whole world to see without the valued opinions of your BFFs? Good friend like your posts on Instagram, but even better friends help you create them.

Step 5: Forget everything I've told you.

For real, this is not what social media is for. Likes do not and will not ever validate how great of a person you are. You do not have to create an "aesthetic" to ensure that people will like you. Be who you are and if the general public doesn't quite like that, keep being who you are. If you want a colorful Instagram, have a colorful Instagram. If you think your captions are funny, then laugh at them and post them for yourself. And if you are worried about aesthetics, that's cool too because it's just a way for you to reflect who you are. Social media is a place for us to be ourselves; whoever that may be, whatever filter we choose, or whichever pun makes us laugh the loudest.

Here's the thing with aesthetics, they are what you want people to see of you. They are the image you portray to people who are merely just looking from a distance and do not actually know who you are. In some ways, aesthetic is important because just like first impressions, what people see is usually going to dictate what they think. However, as most of us have learned, first impressions generally are not realistic depictions of what someone is like, just like we've realized that what is portrayed on social media is not actually who people are.