Teens Growing Up On Tumblr In 2014

“This is a generation of aestheticists, not artists. I’m telling you now, any young artist that goes on Tumblr doesn’t want to create actual art. They either want to be the art or steal it.  Wait is aesthetict, a word?” Says Jake, a 16-year-old from Toronto.

“I mean, I don’t really.  This is going to sound pretentious, but like I’m a really good fucking artist, it’s just that I don’t really have any emotions or aspirations to create something, but for some reason I still know I’m a good artist”.

“A lot of the best artists were full of emotions.” – Me.

“I mean, it’s because everything has been done before. Why even bother to create when you know there is nothing for you to say? Also, why feel anything when art can feel it for you?”

“It is healthy to feel things.” – Me.

“There’s a lot of pressure to move with the trends on the Internet, and it moves so quickly. I hate it. It’s like there is certain slang, for example like ‘ayy lmao’ was cool last week, but now it isn’t. Do you know what Soft Grunge is?” Says Natalie, a 15-year-old from Sunderland.

“Soft Grunge, that’s like Sky Ferreira?” – Me.

“Yeah, she’s like the queen of Soft Grunge. She pretty much invented it. Her and her bf are like the new Kurt and Courtney. Sorry, it’s so cute. I can’t even! Honestly their mugshots were so perfect, it’s true love.”

“‘Heavy Metal Heart’ is mind blowing.” –  Me.

“Yeah it’s so amazing. She’s just like honest, she’s a real voice for kids our age like her lyrics say how I feel!”

“Anyways,  Soft Grunge was where it all kind of started and then Pastel Goth happened, then Net-Art and Xanax Culture..”

“What is Xanax Culture?” –  Me.

“Xanax Culture is like when you post pictures of ferns and like burqas, and white pills like you use arabic text. It’s so lame.”

“Do you ever read magazines or books?” – Me.

“No. Fiction is really boring for me, it’s just not as interesting as Vine or something you can find on your dashboard. When I read sex scenes, it just sounds like Larry Stylinson fanfic or something.  When I read scenes that are supposed to be “emotional”, I just think the characters are looking for attention in the same way people who pretend to be depressed online are. I don’t look at magazines. I don’t really care or have the time, and it’s more interesting to follow the lives of your friends on Instagram and Twitter because it’s like they are the characters in your life’s movie, you know? Also, your dashboard is like a mystery box, you never know what you’re going to get.  You know what I mean? Hey, do you know what really makes me upset?”

“What makes you upset?” – Me.

“When someone you know’s blog starts to look like yours, like excuse me? This is my blog and my soul. You can’t really imitate that, all of the art that I post on there is mine and it represents whom I am.  Like with Sky, it feels like everybody started to reblog her one day, but before they didn’t even care about whom she was when I was doing it.   Sorry, it’s just really frustrating.  I had to switch my blog from Soft Grunge to Pale Blog now even though I really enjoyed the aesthetic of Soft Grunge but now I just can’t.”

Everyone at high school strives for this kind of aesthetic correctness. I do it as well, you know. I curate my life in a way. It’s always playing on my mind, kind of a love-hate relationship. – Lorde / The Guardian

“I’m cool on Tumblr, but nobody really pays attention to me in real life, does that make any sense?”  Says Cody, a 17-year-old from New York.

“It makes sense!” – Me.

“It’s hard because I think when I’m always talking to people on Tumblr and stuff, it’s kind of like how I wish it was for me in real life, but you know, it just isn’t.”

“I feel you.” – Me.

“You can always box things on there everything is really sarcastic. I use ‘xD’ a lot, like  ‘goin 2 the gym xD’, but when I say that I  don’t want to be the type of person who goes to the gym yet I am still going to the gym? I guess it’s ironic?  Tumblr also taught me so much about fashion!”

“Fashion is cool.” – Me.

“When I post a Slimane jersey from V-Files on my page, it is the same as me buying it except it’s like free, you know?”

“How is it the same? You aren’t wearing the shirt?” – Me.

“It’s the same because that Slimane jersey expresses whom I am, people who go to my blog and have never seen that jersey before will totally want it because it’s on my blog!”

“Are you a fan of  his latest collection for Saint Laurent?” – Me.

“Saint Laurent? What’s that?”