Did the Internet create hipsters?
Asked by
Nimis (
13260
)
January 14th, 2012
from iPhone
As much as everyone likes to poke fun at them, aren’t they just the victims of the times?
With the impossible overturn of new information and trends, there seems to be this pressure to keep at the crest of it all.
Instead of laughing at them, should we start a fund for them instead? A clothing drive of non-ironic items? Mandatory music therapy where they are reintroduced to society after listening to Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 30–40?
Can you help me think of ways to rehabilitate these poor souls? Or do you think they’re far too gone?
Let’s not blame the victims.
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25 Answers
Nooooo I love hipster watching. Let us all donate our wolf tshirts and Sally Jesse Raphael glasses and mustachios!
Never seen a beatnik, daddy-o?
@saint @fundevogel
The term has been around awhile. But the pre-90’s hipster is totally different than the post-90’s hipster. Coincidence that it shares a similar timeline of growing popularity/use of the Internet? [insert best detective-y look here]
’“IF YOU HATE THE POLICE, NEXT TIME YOU NEED HELP, CALL A HIPSTER”
I like that.
why do these q’s mocking hipsters pass but my q’s mocking the psychic hotline get modded?
I hate stereotypes so much…
I agree with hipsters on one thing and one thing only. Pabst Blue Ribbon is tasty.
Other than that, I don’t understand why people don’t wear pants that fit. But that’s been an issue since before the hipster.
and @fundevogel you are correct. Hipsters have been around since before hipsters. . . But honestly, I think even beatniks were a little cooler in reality.
Even the original hipsters were cooler. The hipsters of the millenium are not the OG hipsters : /
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies At the heart of it, it’s a real question. I just couldn’t help myself in the details.
@mrrich724 PBR is good—dollar for dollar. But if you’re not on a college budget, there are so many better options.
@Nimis
I am definitely a beer aficionado. But sometimes, I don’t know why, I just want a really cold PBR over anything.
@mrrich724 I know what you mean. It’s like an alcoholic’s glass of cold water. Refreshing.
@mrrich724 I think there’ve always been hipsters. But you’ve gotta wonder, what were hipsters like in other centuries? I’m dead certain Marie Antoinette was a hipster, as was King Louis XIV, but who were the hipsters in 12th century Iceland, ancient Sumer and the land formerly known as Siam?
Could TMBG be on to something?
@fundevogel That’s a good point. I took it for granted we were talking about the “current” ones . . . you know, the ones that the internet very well may have created. LOL
They are quite different from the rest.
Would someone be so kind as to tell me what a hipster is? I always thought hipsters were trousers that sat on one’s hips, no?
@Adagio, from what I’ve heard, they always say “I liked that before it was cool.” like they’re trend setters, or something. And they wear stupid glasses.
I still hate stereotypes.
No; hipsters were around before the Internet was mainstream.
Hipsterdom long predates the internet. Some would argue, Al Gore to the contrary, that hipsters created the internet, not the other way around!
Well, it would be a pretty hip story if that had been the case, wouldn’t it?
No. Hipsters are just a current incarnation of the Nonconformist, which have been around for, who the hell knows how long. The names been around since at least the Forties. I became aware of the term from Ginsberg’s Howl, and then later became aware of the cultural phenomenon around me. The internet merely brought this new breed to the forefront as the butt of yet another internet meme. There have always been guys, and there have always been girls who refuse to go along with whatever is popular, that isn’t caused by ironic glasses, jeans meant to strangle your testicles and cleverly stupid T-Shirts. Either way, though, people like that, hardcore nonconformist types, are total assholes seriously, fuck those guys and are getting what’s coming to them by being so severely mainstream.
Okay, I probably derailed my own question with the second half of my details.
I should probably rephrase the question to:
Do you think the modern day incarnation of the hipster stems from the growing popularity of the Internet? Do you see a difference between pre-Internet and post-Internet hipsters?
Yes. I realize hipsters have been around since erm…forever. But I do think the Internet morphed it into something else entirely.
Pre-Internet, I’d say they were about 1% of the population. Real nonconformists who did their own thing. I don’t remember any of them snubbing their noses at anyone’s musical tastes. In fact, they were pretty generous with sharing their mixed tapes.
Nowadays, I’d say the number of real nonconformists are probably still the same. But the rest of them are hapless victims of the internet.
More information and more consumerism creates this marketing machine that churns out trend after trend. Their signature snobbiness plays right into this whole idea of what you have right now is no longer cool and you NEED to buy the next cool thing. It’s planned obsolescence for music and fashion.
Am I over thinking this? Or just thinking in the wrong direction?
Hipsters are different, just like everyone else. Point?
No, the devil’s evil twin did.
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