Ugly 2013 | |top|

2013 was the year Miley Cyrus "broke" Disney. At the VMAs, she twerked on Robin Thicke (wearing those god-awful foam fingers). Society had a collective meltdown. It was the birth of "How can I make you angry online?" content. The discourse was ugly. The performance was ugly. The foam finger was the ultimate "Ugly 2013" artifact.

Six seconds of looping chaos. The ugliest, most unhinged comedy ever created. It gave us "Road work ahead? Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does," but the video quality looked like it was filmed through a jar of Vaseline.

We were deep into the "cover photo" era. People posted poorly photoshopped images of their zodiac signs superimposed over an eagle holding an American flag. The rise of "cringe compilations" began in 2013 because people were simply too honest and too ugly online. Part IV: Political and Social Ugliness Beyond the aesthetics, the term "Ugly 2013" also reflects a cultural hangover. We didn't know we were standing on the edge of a cliff. ugly 2013

In April 2013, tragedy struck Boston. In response, Reddit launched one of the most notorious citizen "manhunts" in internet history, falsely identifying innocent missing college student Sunil Tripathi as the bomber. It was the moment the internet realized crowdsourced justice is actually just a mob with Wi-Fi. That was ugly. Part V: Why We Are Obsessed With "Ugly 2013" Today If 2013 was so ugly, why can't we stop talking about it?

When we look back at the tapestry of the 21st century, certain years get romanticized. 2008 had Obama-mania (pre-crash). 2010 had the iPad and Instagram filters. 2016 had the fever dream of Harambe and Damn, Daniel . But then there is 2013. 2013 was the year Miley Cyrus "broke" Disney

So, embrace the ugliness. Put on your drop-crotch pants. Queue up "Clarity" by Zedd. And thank god we don't have to live in 2013 again—because honestly? We didn't know how good we had it. Keywords targeted: ugly 2013, 2013 fashion, why was 2013 ugly, 2013 aesthetic, 2013 music.

The U.S. government shutdown for 16 days in October 2013. It was petty, pointless, and left tourists locked out of national parks. It was ugly politics with zero stakes compared to today, but just as frustrating. It was the birth of "How can I make you angry online

Instagram was barely 3 years old. We were still using "Earlybird," "Walden," and "Hefe"—filters that slapped a sepia or radioactive orange halo over everything. Every photo of a salad or a sunset looked like it was taken inside a nuclear reactor.