The Philosophy of Jeans, and Thoughts on Being Yourself
Discovering your unique interests is a potent antidote against a world of ever-increasing sameness.
Feeling like yourself in a world designed to constantly make you feel like you should be something else is a radical act and a challenge to achieve. Algorithms and monetized, viral trends do their utmost to throw us off the scent of authenticity — all while championing originality. In a world where reality is an increasingly questionable concept, the reality of who you are and what matters to you may be the last bastion of freedom available to humanity.
What makes you feel like yourself? What activities, media or even clothes feel like second nature and a familiar home? I’ve found myself increasingly susceptible to online trends — I’m seeking out particular color palettes I wasn’t interested in before, buying sunglass styles I wouldn’t have touched a couple years ago and gravitating toward silhouettes that were previously unappealing to me. The most obvious example of this persuasion from semi-online living is my ever-changing taste in jeans.
Unlike any other article of clothing, jeans have this amazing power of time stamping you exactly when you wore them. Remember looking through old pictures of your mom when she was young? You can tell it was the 70s, because she’s wearing bell bottoms. Anyone who’s a millennial will have more than a few photos of themselves in the skinny jeans that dominated the early 2000s all the way through the 2010s. We’re back to baggy these days, and I just bought a pair of voluminous Levis that I feel really cool in. Do I feel cool in them because they align with my personal aesthetic and that feels synergistic, or do I feel cool in them because they’re cool right now? I guess only time will tell - when I look back at pictures from 2025 in 10 years, will I cringe or will I still be wearing my baggies?
The philosophy of jeans aside, there’s no denying that each of us is more susceptible than ever to the pervasive power of social media, and the trends that spawn from it. It’s easy to see why: In the past, we were exposed to advertisements in short, controlled doses. Reading a magazine never took more than a few hours, and that was if you were really milking it. (Shoutout to my hours-long Teen Vogue deep dives.) Watching TV (where commercials were obvious and could be easily ignored) might have been an all-day affair, but it usually wasn’t something we watched for eight-plus hours a day. Billboards, newspapers and the like all featured adverts, but again, they were obvious enough that the informed consumer could, theoretically, ignore their influence. Those simpler times are long-gone now. Advertisements are disguised as “authentic” social media posts, brought to you by your favorite relatable micro-influencer, who feels like a best friend (and recommends the coolest stuff). Brands buy advertisements in a mimicry of the long-ago traditional commercial break, but I’d be willing to bet the amount of conversions driven by those ads are far less than the latest influencer is racking up. And most importantly of all - the thing that really separates the past from the present - is that digital media never sleeps. It never stops. And the majority of us are scrolling from the minute we open our eyes in the morning until we fall asleep at night.
In a world where everyone is a star and no one is special, being influenced is silent, incessant and increasingly, desired. Why form your own personality, tastes and peculiarities when you could buy the latest trend in apparel and instantly feel like part of the cool kids club? (The ‘cool kids club’ is no longer elite and underground, by the way. You can join for the affordable price of downloading TikTok.) The irony in all of this? The cool kids of today are a twisted version of their predecessors: Influencers by and large are totally bought out by corporate media, shilling for the biggest and baddest corporations on the planet, and all interchangeable with one another. Welcome to paradise.
What makes you feel like yourself, I ask once more? What awakens a small part of you that is creative and wild and unhindered by the rampant homogenization that threatens to choke out the complexity and magic of life? I’ve taken to creating a list of things that make me feel like myself, none of them digital and most of them based, in one way or another, on what I loved as a child. I refer back to this list when I feel stretched thin, uninspired and ready to throw it all away and buy the latest Away suitcase or Our Place pan. If you feel totally drained by the sameness of our world and don’t really feel like you know who you are or what you want anymore, I suggest you make a list of your own - if only for sanity’s sake, let alone individuality. Here’s mine.
Things That Make ME, Feel Like Me
Driving with the windows down and a warm breeze whipping my hair
Singing along to my favorite songs from when I was a kid
Creating things with my hands - drawing, sewing, painting, making jewelry, baking
Reading a good book (Physical copy, of course. Paper backs and hard covers alike are welcome)
Eating a tangerine that’s been warmed by the sun right off the tree
Sorting change (Weird, I know, but I like it)
Sitting in the sun and thinking
Walking
Climbing on rocks (not to be confused with rock climbing)
Swimming in the ocean
Writing
Laughing with a close friend
Putting together fun outfits
Looking at magazines full of beautiful images - clothing, interior design, art
Making up silly songs and stories
Making a big ol’ fire
Sitting next to that fire for hours
Hiking
Listening to birds sing
Catching lizards
Driving along quiet roads
Breathing in the smell of the desert on a warm day
The color blue
I could keep this list going, but you get the idea. I loved all of these things before I loved/loathed social media, and you can bet your ass I’ll love them after the digital overlords have overrun society. The interests that make me who I am are not special or unique when inspected individually: it’s the combination of them, plus the experiences only I have lived, that make me who I am. Totally normal and totally unique. Not something that can be replicated by an algorithm. And, admittedly, a sucker for the newest trends in denim.