On November 17, the New York Times Opinionator published an article on a major phenomenon that supposedly exudes irony in our daily lives: the hipster. The writer Christy Wampole, a 35-year-old Princeton assistant professor, bites back at the hipster generation.
In reaction to the piece, some 90s and 80s kids, mustachioed young men, not to mention their dorky-glassed counterparts, and girls of course, realized that they were living as hipsters and thought to return to more original ways of life. For others, Wampole was only a rude insight on a blessed Sunday morning.
Wampole condemns the hipster’s “nostalgia for times he never lived.” She believes that hipsters are a walking citation. In her mind, our generation – inextricably linked to hipsters – is too indirect, and unable to face criticism so we turned to the Internet and irony. She goes on to say that her generation, which came of age in the 90s, showed more directness by expressing “diligent apathy” or “eating anti-depressants, like they were candy.” Well I’ve got news for you Wampole, Kurt Cobain died on drugs, how do you see that?
Wampole has a very unhealthy view of our generation; she is very confused, possibly shunned, and out of touch with young people. That is the only way to explain why she would write an article like this.
Yes, we like being ironic and indirect (albeit our addiction to the Internet and those wonderful devices that she seems to think “take us elsewhere”). We filter our photos to add a bit of history to them, we are attached to ironic phrases, we are concerned with material kitsch we do not pay for ourselves. That does not mean Generation Y is full of hipsters, or that we prefer to use irony all the time.
Irony. The five-letter word relates to the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect, according to New Oxford American Dictionary. Our generation can be just as ironic as the last, hell we did not invent irony.
“It is frankly astonishing that she accuses Generation Y of being overly ironic while absolving her own Generation X, which invented that attitude,” Alex Heigl commented on Nerve.
Being ironic is not a self-defense mechanism against criticism, it’s a way to show one is secure enough to laugh with oneself. Irony does not necessarily mean we are being indirect.
Photos, according to Wampole, should be un-filtered because one cannot accelerate meaningful remembrance by pre-washing photos with electronic filters. In the 90s, making a photo look dated on your own phone with the easy touch of the screen was not an option. We now have the technology to do that and for arts or nostalgia’s sake we will take advantage of that. Just because we use digital gadgets does not mean we are forgetting who we are or where we come from.
Technology does not make us incapable of dealing with the things at hand. Our increasing use and reliance on technology is only again differentiating our generation from the last. Past generations said good morning to their loved ones with a hug or letter. We use a Facebook message. Globalization, mobilization, and traveling have increased in Generation Y, so technology is simply an easier way to communicate for us.
Wampole quickly goes on to assume the stereotypical societal conventions that flannel and ironic t-shirt equal hipster. Just because one has interests in certain fashions, mechanisms and hobbies, exhibits awkwardness or self-consciousness, and forages for non-mainstream information, does not mean one is a hipster.
She even goes so far as selling herself out for irony. The only thing ironic about her piece is that it is also published on the Internet, despite the fact that she believes the Internet shuns our ability to “deal with the things at hand.” Without the Internet, and if her readers didn’t have access to the print version of the Sunday New York Times, they would have been unable to read this article in the first place.