Beauty is often defined as a subjective quality of certain objects, which makes these objects appealing to the senses. These objects could be nature, images, humans or works of art. Beauty, along with beauty and art, is the primary focus of aesthetics, one of those major branches of social science. It has been said that beauty is the true meaning of life and that the study of beauty is tantamount to the understanding of life itself. According to the most renowned philosophers like Aristotle, Seneca and Positheus, beauty encompasses the aesthetic sense or “mind-set” and includes a variety of human emotions like joy, admiration, fear, affection, satisfaction and disgust.
The beauty found in objects varies according to the people’s culture and social status. The definition of beauty therefore also varies across cultures and nations, though the aspects shared by all cultures often overlap significantly. What is common however among all aesthetic tastes is an appreciation of beauty as a natural and individual phenomenon, and this is what allows beauty to have social value.
Beauty therefore finds itself at the forefront of many aesthetic discussions. Aesthetics are used in almost all areas of modern life; for instance, in advertising, architecture and fashion. In the social media, beauty has even become a kind of currency to express one’s social status in the virtual world. Thus, beauty finds usage in everything from online advertisements to the everyday use of social media like Facebook and Twitter. While beauty might seem to have no place in the real world, it plays a crucial role in our everyday lives.