This is more of a thought experiment than a conclusion, but it’s something I’ve been wondering about.

I’ve noticed how often people talk about feeling anxious, overstimulated, or generally “on edge.” It shows up in a lot of different places: workplace discussions, mental health conversations, even casual social media posts about burnout. (Of course there are real reasons for that: economic pressure, global instability, the usual stresses of modern life.)

I started thinking this might have something to do with how exposed modern life feels. And I don’t just mean online. I mean the overall conditions we move through every day.

I think two things seem to be happening at the same time.

1. Visibility and Evaluation

Modern culture strongly encourages visibility.

You’re supposed to have a public presence. A perspective. A point of view. Even if you’re not actively participating online, the environment around you is structured around being seen.

• At work you need to demonstrate your “engagement.”
• Socially you’re expected to signal belonging in some way.

Clothing has absorbed some of that pressure.

Instead of simply covering the body or responding to climate, clothes are often treated as a kind of message system. They’re expected to say something about your personality, your taste, your politics, your creativity.

That’s a lot of work for a shirt to do.

The result is that clothing becomes part of a broader culture of continuous self-presentation.

But visibility alone isn’t the whole story.

The second layer is evaluation.

Clothing isn’t just present. It’s interpreted. People talk about outfits as aesthetics, identities, brands, archetypes. Even casual comments about clothes can trigger a kind of internal translation process.

• What does this say about me?
• Did I communicate the right thing?

At some point you realize that a lot of style advice quietly assumes you should be managing how you’re perceived at all times.

That kind of constant interpretive work takes effort. Which might explain why so many people eventually reach a point of aesthetic exhaustion.

2. Less regulating environments

At the same time, a lot of our physical environments have become less regulating.

By regulating I mean how an environment or piece of clothing affects the body’s baseline state. Some conditions help the body relax. Others keep it slightly alert.

Older clothing tended to have qualities that stabilized the body in subtle ways: heavier fabrics, matte surfaces, looser drape, thicker structure. Those materials did quiet work.

Modern clothing often does the opposite. Fabrics are thinner, lighter, stretchier, shinier, and sometimes more visually active. The body has to do more of the regulating work itself.

I have also noticed something similar in architectural environments. Designers who study calm spaces often point to the same variables:

• lower visual contrast
• natural materials
• softer, indirect light
• stable proportions
• surfaces that absorb sound rather than reflect it

These conditions tend to create spaces where people feel calm without quite knowing why. When those qualities disappear, environments start to feel more stimulating and harder to inhabit.

I’ve become more aware of this when looking at housing and workspaces. A lot of newer buildings rely on thinner materials, harder surfaces, brighter lighting, slick textures, and a lot of gray.

None of these choices are necessarily wrong, but the overall effect can feel slightly unsettling.

It also helps me understand why so many people (including me) value working from home. Most offices are the opposite of regulating environments: bright overhead lighting, reflective surfaces, constant noise, and very little control over the conditions around you. Even if you enjoy the work, the environment itself can be exhausting to sit inside for eight hours.

Of course none of these factors alone explain everything.

But when they combine, you get:

• environments that are visually louder
• clothing that regulates the body less
• social norms that emphasize constant presentation

It’s possible that what we experience as anxiety or even just background tension,  partly comes from those conditions. The body may simply feel overexposed. Not in a dramatic sense, just in a low-grade environmental one.

For me, the clothes that feel best usually share the same qualities as calm environments. They reduce stimulation instead of adding to it. The clothes stop acting like a message. They just become part of the environment.

I’m not consuming style content these days, but I remember often wondering: why are we all trying to “find our personal style”? Why did that become such a collective goal online?

Now I’m starting to suspect many of us were not actually looking for a better style.

We might have just been looking for a little less exposure.