Hipsters

Considering I only learned about the phenomenon of hipsters last semester (how exactly I never noticed them before is a mystery to me) I've developed a quite an interest in their lifestyle.
Partly because of Hipster Hitler, which I found out about in one of my classes, and was simultaneously offended and humored. Then my roommates called one of our acquaintances from high school a hipster and he went on Urban Dictionary.com to find out the definition. He has now embraced full hipster-ism and is going out of his way to prove he is one, by constantly talking about music and romance and shit.

Quite honestly, I still don't know what a hipster is, exactly. It's a bit hard to define (a circulating reference, as we called it in the same class where I learned about Hipster Hitler). However, whenever I see someone in thick glasses and a woolly sweater in a cafe, I am suddenly cheered up. I think there's a lot of hipsters in Cultural Studies, so maybe that's why. Also, they just look retro and like they don't give a crap, which is oddly refreshing. Of course, I've never gotten into an argument with someone who considers themselves a hipster, so take that with a grain of salt. But I feel like I could so easily become a hipster - wear the tight pants, get some retro sneakers. I already hang out in cafes all the time, and I listen to random-ass music (some that apparently is actually popular with hipsters). On the down side, "Look at that f@cking hipster" is pretty funny to me, and I can't lie that I have no understanding of what sort of philosophy or whatever a hipster has. Truly, I'm not hipster material. They'd think me to mainstream and totally shun me.

But they are everywhere. On campus, on TV, on YouTube (check out Arcade Fire Hipster Attack - it's awesome). And I don't know when this happened. Maybe hipster just wasn't a platform of expression in high school (or at least my high school - we had emo instead). But I kind of like this whole vibe. A snarky attitude towards the 50s (and everything in general) plus some cool music and interesting fashion choices - yeah, I can deal with this. Unless they all become like my acquaintance who became a hipster because of Urban Dictionary. Then I will truly have to withdrawal my support of hipster-ism. Because then hipsters would just be lame. But I have hope - maybe they'll be like the beatniks of the 1950s. And if they aren't... well, I'll save my judgment for something else I actually dislike. Like Jersey Shore.