Vertical Clips and Insta Squares on the Big Screen
Aesthetic Identification in Teen Tech Films
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52610/rhs.v30i91.362Keywords:
Teen tech film, Digital aesthetics, Cluster analysis, Dramatistic hexad, Identification, Aesthetic affectAbstract
In today’s digital culture, young adults actively engage with aesthetics as a means of self-representation and shared experience, especially through platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This paper examines how digital aesthetics are reflected in the teen tech film, a subgenre of young adult film that incorporates social media and digital interfaces into both narrative and visual form. Focusing on the Belgian film Home (Troch, 2016), the study employs Kenneth Burke’s cluster analysis and dramatistic hexad to examine how digital aesthetic choices can impact affective modes of identification for teen audiences. By analysing vertical clips or Instagram-style frames in the visual language of this film, the paper argues that teen tech films do more than depict youth culture; they show how social media aesthetics can be employed rhetorically to construct (cinematic) forms of belonging and identification.
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