The Aww Effect

When I think of cuteness, my mind immediately goes to those YouTube videos of hamsters eating burritos, or to the adorable teddy bear from the movie Ted, or to those Minecraft toys that are so endearing. The internet is flooded with a tsunami of awws and adorableness. It is clear that we are drowning in puppies, kittens and bunnies. The video of a baby panda sneezing is one of the most watched YouTube videos ever! So, what is it about cuteness that makes us go “aww”?

Stanford professor Sianne Ngai believes that “cuteness” is a concept worth studying. In her paper, she states that the smaller and less formally articulated and 'blob-like' the object is, the cuter it becomes. She says that the 'blobishness' suggests greater malleability and thus a capacity of being handled.

Whilst “aww” moments were, in the past, just private moments at home, they are now out there for everyone else to see thanks to the internet. Websites such as Cute Overload, which get over 150,000 views a day, shows photographs and videos of puppies (puppehs), kittens (kittehs) and baby rabbits (bun-buns) eating their little meals.

Cuteness really is everywhere, evidenced by social networking site Facebook, where millions of users have posted photos of themselves as babies. And it's not just a digital thing. Time Warner's People magazine paid over $6 million for photos of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's newborn twins.

On the downside though, conveying cuteness to viewers can disempower the subject. Even the high and mighty Lord Voldemort couldn't escape the clutch of cuteness. The Harry Potter villain is now available as a cuddly plush toy, with its motto being “squeeze him in your world today!”

All of this must make you wonder, are you a cute-a-holic? Do you need a pint of cuteahol to get through your day? If you are, there's nothing to worry about. Personally, I think cuteness produces a feeling of warmth and closeness accompanied by behavioural patterns of caring which can only be good for you. As for the detractors, I'm not too concerned. The power of cuteness will bat its eyes, crinkle its nose, wiggle and smother its critics with softness!

By Naveed Naushad