An Analysis of New Media’s Appreciation of Ugliness — Anti-Performance and Anti-Authority in Postmodern Contexts
Abstract
In the era of information virtualization, entertainment expression has become the ideological tendency of public discourse. Under the dual drive of technical support and market interests, the appreciation of ugliness has been transformed into individual alienation and emotional behaviour, rebelling against the traditional concept of beauty in cognition and forming a popular and spreading trend of network with grotesqueness, ugliness, and specialisation as symbols. This paper will combine psychological and sociological theories, take the popularity of Nikocado Avocado on YouTube as an example, explore the root causes of the proliferation of ugliness appreciation in today’s new media, and further propose ways to purify the social aesthetic environment. Through this study, it was found that the essential reasons are as follows: First, the anti-authority and anti-elite cultural atmosphere formed in the post-modern context makes people more willing to deconstruct beautiful things and oppose traditional mainstream aesthetics; Second, personal jealousy produces subconscious confrontation against beautiful things; third, in order to attract the flow brought by new media and satisfy economic interests, ugliness is performed. To solve this problem, the government needs to play an important role in the media and strengthen the auditing of Internet content. At the same time, relevant departments should disseminate correct aesthetic concepts in society and strengthen the aesthetic education of teenagers.
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