It’s Supposed to Look Like Shit: The Internet Ugly Aesthetic

Abstract

The internet has long-term aesthetic trends, one of which is Internet Ugly, a previously unnamed style that runs through many separate pieces of online culture, but especially through memetic content. Internet Ugly can be created by amateurs without specific aesthetic intention, or by creators choosing it intentionally as a dialect. It spreads on the internet thanks to the medium’s unique bottom-up architecture. Many memes (and many specific creators’ bodies of work) begin in Internet Ugly but evolve away from it. Long-abandoned forms of Internet Ugly can reappear on new platforms or from referential creators. While the style can be co-opted by corporate and political interests and sold back to many of its consumers, its core practitioners often respond to such exploitation with public outcry, or simply drop the co-opted version of the style for a new one. Internet Ugly embodies core values of many online creators and communities; therefore, understanding this aesthetic is crucial to any study of online culture.