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Random topic that came into my head simply by seeing the title of a video on YouTube (but didn't click on at the time as I was concentrating on other stuff). I feel like most of the previous decades from at least the 1910s to the 2000s have a certain "look/aesthetic" to them that people can identify. For example the 70s had disco music and a certain type of decor style that I admit I'm not sure what the name of it is, the 80s had "big hair, big clothes, and neon lights," the 90s was the "grunge" era, and the 00s was the era of the "Y2K" aesthetic, where wider mainstream acceptance of the internet and such lead to things like those computers with "sleek" looks and lots of bright primary colors, but with still some of the edge from the 90s grunge era carrying over.

But what defined the 2010s in terms of an "aesthetic"? Because yeah to be honest… I have no clue.

Nerdy hipster that never leaves his house I guess.

Flannels came and went, so did infinity scarfs and ugs boots
under armor and yoga pants came into fashion
Busy button down are becoming more and more a thing

Blocky, Cubical, but somewhat Bland and Sterile buildings?

I can't really think of much, but I'm going to guess that we're not going to get a decent answer until both it wanes from people's memory some and technology progresses a notable degree because in my experience, "Decade Aesthetics" tend to be an amalgam of stereotypes about that time period's culture and technology.

The 80's is represented through crazy hair and very exaggerated VHS noise effects, the 90's is often represented with exaggeratedly polygonal 3D graphics. The VHS distortion isn't really that bad (unless the tape's gone bad/is a copy of a copy of a copy) and there are some really decent-looking games from the 90's, but usually when people now depict these time periods, they exaggerate these kinds of details because it's what different from today's technology and thus the first thing you're likely to think of.

Maybe in 20 years people will be making 'retro' 2010's-themed games that are just normal games without RTX or any other graphical innovations made after 2019. Maybe people will look back on the movies we've been calling bland and remember them fondly through rose-tinted-nostalgia-glasses?

So really, we'll just have to wait and see. What will people latch onto and think of whenever the 2010's are mentioned? Maybe memes will be a major part of the 2010 Aesthetic? They were definitely thrust into the mainstream repeatedly throughout the decade.

Memes (especially Advice Animal memes), bronies, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those are the things I can certainly think of when it comes to the 2010s

Blandness, sterility, derivative unoriginality, focus-group tested corporate aesthetics that don't do anything new or groundbreaking.

Kaijin speculated on the possibility of people in the 2040s making "retro" 20120's content, but I don't think so. yeah, maybe the people of the 70's and 80's thought their stuff was bland, but that's just more of human nature wanting something new. There's nothing aesthetically new in the 2010s. It all feels like a mishmash of decades prior because the Board of Directors recently were read a study from consultants citing the popularity of certain aesthetics in different decades and the secure profit that would stem from tapping into those previous generations' nostalgia, as opposed to being in touch with any art movements or artists to catch onto anything new. Not that the current art community is full of pioneers itself nowadays, so it's just kind of a lose-lose situation all around.

Uggs, man-buns, the explosive rise of supreme, off-white, streetwear/harajuku fashion etc

Women in garish hair dye, long with a single shaved side.

I think I have an accurate description for a "2010s aesthetic". I think the term for 2010s would be the "New Media" era, since the internet and other online culture from the 00s had grown to become mainstream enough to overtake old media, such as television and print media. The rise of social media is also a major factor to which an alternative era name would be the "Social Media" era.

Being more direct in terms of aesthetics, the 2010s were bland. Pretty much too modern to the point of being dull. Pretty much what JukeInTheBox said, but I think the reason the decade was meant to be futuristic, which can explain the corporate minimalist look or bloc art aesthetic that is mocked. Think about it. A lot of past media and fiction would depict the early or late 10s as like living in the future.

The problem was that the future was too ahead of it's time to be replicated in reality. As a result, there has been many attempts to give a future look with the overuse of minimalism and genericism. I like to think that the early 2010s is it's own separate aesthetic from the rest of the era, mostly for some favorable nostalgia, but there are still some aesthetics like weirdcore or vaporwave that have rose in 2010s, though not mainstream enough to help label the era.

Corporate artstyle, which will also be the aesthetic of the 2020s.

This video pretty much encapsulates what I think of this whole ordeal.

Over-Minimalism is the aesthetic of the 2010's.

Here is the aesthetic of the 2020's if we continue this COVID nightmare.

The 90s and 00s are quite distinct in their aesthetic, as defined by trends in fashion, music, media and product design and what was successful. It doesn't feel as if the 2010s have an aesthetic, nothing became dominant and widespread enough, if there was then it was too corporate to define the aesthetic; everything else was branded, chasing social media fame and became normal (enough) to become mundane and forgettable.

The 2010s saw the hipsters emerge and quickly establish a stereotypical fashion and lifestyle that evolved into a neo-hippie trend of 'grassroots, mason jars and the world is a global village'. The SJWs and Co. sorta have a new 'alt' aesthetic, some are branching into the androgynous and non-binary world (which are developing their own).
Vaporwave etc etc had their own early on but surprisingly fell way short and I don't think they ever made it in common culture.

Everyday design has become 'same-y', indistinct shapes, safe colours, a complete lack of unique design

Overall there isn't one (or maybe there is and we're old enough that we're no longer sufficiently connected to the information flows that give you a sense of a decades aesthetic)

>SJW's

>Alt

pick one.

Hard to give it a word, because even Minimalism has a certain character that the 2010s didn't even manage. Call it Flatism, or Sterlism, or whatever, but it's like they tried to take minimalism and remove anything that made THAT unique.

It seems everything was made to be as plain and simple (and usually boring) as possible, possibly in an attempt to be as least offensive as possible, but I can't say for certain on that.

Tik Tok, vine, youtube influencers, twitter…

God that is even more depressing than my previous answer

Excess minimalism, lose of style over function. Almost blocky and borderline sterile in how it looks.

Fashion wise it was a mixed bag of flannels, those big rimmed glasses, man buns, dyed hair, mix between form fitting clothes and baggy clothes.

Game wise it was a large mix between realism and realistic graphics as well as pixelated mid to late 80s and early 90s pixel games.

Music was a massive rise in techno and electronic music as well as more international music.

Oh yes, dubstep--idk if that's also in early 2000's but 2010's definitely dubstep

Dubstep is definitely a 2010's thing.

Fuck dubstep, bring back big beat!

You mean brostep. Real dubstep is stuff like Burial and Kode9.

Leggings, yoga pants and uncomfortable skinny jeans.

2010 was a mixed bag.