“Homebody” Aesthetics And The Psychology Of Comfort
Get your snugaroo, oodie, snuglet or onesie, because in this article we’ll be sofa-slumping deeply into the topic of comfort. Let’s dive into how home-relaxing has become a commodified and aestheticised force online. We will explore some of the pros and cons of consoling yourself with the couch and whether comfort really is the new form of luxury, or if there are any other activities for those of us more introverted. If there are, they can be easily forgotten about once that soft, fluffy snugaroo coddles you with its cotton, that must contain illicit substances somewhere beneath the seam!
It’s difficult to deny the luxury of staying in: why go out for dinner and a movie when you can have food delivery and a scrolling spree through a streaming service? Dominant advertising definitely argues for the second choice; helpfully painting the burgers with extra sesame seeds, playing some soul music, paying actors for their best “ahhh” exhale and singing “why go out when you have everything at home?”. And we have to hand it to the big corporations. They do have a point, because sometimes the best, most attentive choice for yourself is skipping the taxi, the tip, the terrible weather and vegging out alone or with others with everything you need in that one special place.
However, there is an important distinction between doing this for yourself or doing it because you can’t think of what else to do; where you can’t see the point of anything else and the adverts and media are successfully influencing you to stay in, that’s when the commodification of comfort can become a bit too close for comfort.
And is there a danger of making things too comfortable to the point where it gets a bit silly? For instance, the innovative new product that solves neck-pain when watching films in bed (it’s a mini chair that you can put on your bed…it comes with a cup/remote holder though!) Or, there’s the popular cooking videos where those faceless Jamie Olivers bring up their air-fryers to bed and cook up chicken nuggets…in bed, “bed” seems to be becoming a running theme.
The Covid-19 pandemic most certainly created an idea behind the “home” as being a beacon of safety and comfort. For many, this feeling of seclusion and bliss can be a hard thing to break from ; almost addictive in a way, but often when you stay home not because you want to but because you feel like you need to, then, it can have the opposite effect of care, and create bad habits that are harder to break free form.
Written by Ben Lynch (@Ben_Lynch__)
Edited by Alex Kelleher (@alex_kelleher_)
