TikTokers desperate for new content ideas are officially scraping the bottom of the bin. A new trend has emerged on social media involving flat-lay photos that capture an “airplane tray aesthetic,” causing some bold passengers to hold up the TSA line taking snaps of what’s arguably one of life’s least “aesthetic” moments: the harried dump of carry-ons into an ugly gray conveyor belt tray. But regardless of how carefully these travelers arrange their belongings for the photo, everyone knows what’s waiting on the other side of the metal detector – starting with a group of already-impatient security agents eager to poke and prod and throw your stuff away.
As a chronic people-pleaser, I am amazed by the gall of anyone who purposefully holds up a line in any context, but especially the TSA line. It doesn’t matter if it’s a snaking, 30-minute queue or a light smattering of leisurely sojourners, my anxiety always spurs me to scurry through security as fast as I can, leaving no trace behind. Those climbing aboard the airplane tray trend, taking time to sweetly stack their shoes and passports and handbags in the throes of transport chaos, must not be plagued with the same neuroses.
I can’t think of a less appealing time to stop and take a photo, except for maybe with the corpse at an open casket funeral, or with the cop who just pulled you over for texting and driving. The TSA line is the manifestation of all humanity’s anxieties. It’s the central nervous system of air travel and it is permanently in a state of fight or flight. There is no public space with a higher concentration of stressed-out, shaky-handed, frantic people aside from maybe the checkout line at a packed Trader Joe’s where the cashier is dead-set on discussing the merits of different crudité to pair with that vegan buffalo dip you just bought.
The airport is infamous enough as is, a vortex where everyone is overstimulated, irritable, and twitchy. Aside from not smuggling weapons or value-size bottles of lotion in your bags, your only job as a member of the TSA line is to move through as silently and as forgettably as possible.
Airplane tray aesthetic makes me wonder: What happened to the demure fall we were promised? To our season of being considerate and cutesy and decidedly not a menace to the general public? It seems airplane tray aesthetic may have already killed her before she had a chance to begin.
Natalie B. Compton of The Washington Post asked a spokesperson from the TSA about the trend and if they were concerned about the effect it might have on the airport check-in process. TSA is not bothered by the concept outright, Compton said in a recent TikTok, but if it translates to people holding up the line “in any way” (her emphasis) then “we’re talkin’ a cardinal sin of airport security.”
Luckily for the frequent flyers among us, several airplane tray aesthetes appear to be waiting to take their snapshots until after they’ve cleared the metal detectors, and some have even bought their own gray bins to stage photos at home, no boarding pass required.
For anyone who does partake in the trend while in line, it’s a display of unawareness so shocking that it borders on impressive. Maybe I could stand to channel some of that DGAF energy into my life in small ways, learning to let go just a bit of my misplaced sense of responsibility for the energy of every space I enter. Still, I think the TSA line remains an unchanged space where anxious people-pleasers like me – who have cold sweats remembering a time before PreCheck, when we had no choice but to hold up the line by .3 seconds untying the laces on our Skechers – have the chance to really shine.
Emma Glassman-Hughes is the associate editor at PS Balance. Before joining PS, her freelance and staff reporting roles spanned the lifestyle spectrum; she covered arts and culture for The Boston Globe, sex and relationships for Cosmopolitan, travel for Here Magazine, and food, climate, and agriculture for Ambrook Research.
