Trendsspeaking topic
When the 'old money' aesthetic became a purchasable uniform on TikTok, does the entire charm of hidden wealth, the 'if you know, you know' logic, collapse? What happens when a class code is opened to everyone?
— video essay topic
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- Choosing a career, we ask 'passion or security?' But maybe loading passion onto work was the mistake. Should we expect meaning from our jobs, or treat work simply as the thing that funds our lives?
- Does side hustle culture nurture passion, or is it the necessity of people who can't live on one income, prettied up as a 'hobby'? Why did it become normal for everyone to have a side hustle?
- Esther Perel's idea of 'romantic consumerism': have we become customers who shop for a partner with a checklist, demanding maximum features for minimum cost, or is that just the modern shape of self-respect?
- We sit in a cafe for hours working on laptops without exchanging a word with the next table. Has sharing a space become the politest form of sharing nothing at all?
- When an aesthetic turns into mainstream brand marketing (dark academia perfume, cottagecore furniture), the community declares it 'dead.' Is it popularity that kills an aesthetic, or the fact that it was sellable from the very start?