AIBU to wonder why in God's name anyone would want to be a hipster?

[aermingers]

I thought of this because of the cereal cafe thread (although I think those two seem like nice lads).

I mean, hipsters are a bit of a joke now right? People who are so achingly desperate to be different but they're slavishly following their own crowd like sheep.

I look at them and I just think it's such a pretentious pile of arse and it just shows an obsession with image and outward appearances above all else. And having the right sort of job in 'meeja' or 'creative industries' and hanging with the right crowd. It's sort of a modern type of snobbery which has a lot more in common with their Grandparents obsessions with class and outward appearances by stone cladding their drive and working for the right company and shopping in the right supermarket than they'd like to admit.

I mean, does anybody else look at hipsters and think 'Oh you're so cool' apart from other hipsters? They just seem like the punchline to a joke to me now.

Its just fashion innit.
Very similar to the "earnest" brogue- wearing, turn -up clad, alternative product obsessed thing of the mid to late 80s. It seems a bit harsh to ridicule ppl for it and sounds a bit like my parents whinging when I was a teenager about how rubbish Duran Duran were compared to Eagles or some such.
The only reason I don't "get it" (the look) it is because I am too old. It wasn't really my thing the first time round either. Never suited me.
I preferred the slutty look

DP is a hipster.

The poor man was happily mooching around with his beard, old-skool trainers, nerd glasses and t-shirts and one day he suddenly became trendy.

Poor little sausage.

Am sure people look at me in my jersey dresses and DMs and wonder how I managed to pull someone oh-so-hip.

It's the beard with the bun combo that gets me.
I know quite a few hipsters, they try so hard to be achingly cool.
So pretencious.

Hmmmm...why would anyone want to be a "hipster"?

Young(ish), likely to have good well paid job in a satisfyingly creative industry, plenty of free time and disposable income to indulge in buying Apple gizmos, craft beers and hanging around in bars and coffee shops. My god, I can't imagine OP, it sounds utterly miserable, the fools!

Let's point and laugh at how they're the ones getting life so wrong!

Most of my mates are hipsters. We work in bar industry. It's seen as a bit of an in joke - the braces, beards, brogues, skinny jeans.

They do it on purpose because it's funny and cliched to look like that. I think it's the world outside who get bothered about them who are not getting the joke.

They are all very nice, funny and talented. Make cracking creative drinks and run some of the best bars in the uk.

As long as they keep bashing out amazing drinks I reckon they can wear what they want

I think my son is one. He's not chosen to be one, his style has just developed in that direction and he loves retro technology (cassette players etc).

It's like asking why someone would choose to be a 'chav' or a middle class type who goes to Tuscany in the summer then skiing in winter. They are simply living their life the best way they know how.

As someone who knows a few hipsters, and quite a few more who don't subscribe to the 'beard/skinny jean' fashion, but still follow the philosophy, the are amongst some of the judgiest people I know:

'Oh no, we are not going to that club, its full of 'those' sort of people'
'It must be soooooo boring to live outside of London (even though I only moved here 5 years ago and managed without Lebanese street food perfectly fine before that).
'I'm not getting my coffee from that place, the people in there have no idea what good coffee is'
'Huh? You dont like Cheese Plimsoll's new song? Oh I see, you listen to Radio 1 do you?'
'I just love living in East London but when the time starts to raise I family I will not be sticking around. Yes, I love living with all the foreign people in such a diverse and cosmopolitan area, but I don't want my kids going to school with these people do I? I shall be moving back out to my Home Counties place of birth, or if I have a bit more money, I shall be residing in one of the 'naicer' areas of London, like Kingston or East Dulwich.'

I have no problem judging hipsters or those of their ilk

Going by your comments Neverbuy "hipster" now just means "youngish middle class Londoner".

I need to know who the hipster dad in Sprink's playground is.

I think with or without the beard, braces and bow tie, the attitude is the same.

We used to have a actually quite hot 'ageing rocker' dad at our school. Mid forties, leather jacket, earring, longish hair. He was categorically not a hipster though!

There are no hipsters where I live, I've only seen the on TV and heard them discussed here. I feel like I have led a sheltered life.

Our local coffee shop advertises itself with the slogan

"Made by hand not hipsters"

The hipster kids (dressed by DM and DF are hilarious). Usually to be found on Instagram artfully holding fruit or wearing clashing 70s knits whilst holding a charity shop doll.

DH is probably a hipster minus the beard (mainly because I hate beards).

Thing is, he'd probably wear exactly the same, do exactly the same things and like exactly the same things even if they weren't fashionable.

Urban Outfitters amuses me as it sells the exact same things I wore when I was a teenager.

I also still wear the same type of retro trainers I did then. I never did stop wearing them. I have been wearing the exact brand/make of trainers for 20 years. Which makes me wonder when/if I did go out of fashion before the current 90s revival and just how sad that makes me!

As a side note, its quite good that nerds are cool to a certain extent. Growing up, it was not a good thing.

Ah, why would anyone want to be a hipster?

Well, because, in the immortal words: being a dick head's cool

m.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmmYMwFj1I

Bless, saw a little hipster guy when I was out at the shops just now. He was young, wearing a tweed cap, thick black rimmed glasses and a ludicrous handlebar moustache. At first I thought he was in a costume or disguise, then I remembered that this is what the dudes like to look like now. Honestly I lold.

I'm Facebook friends with a Hipster couple. Their poor baby has the most ridiculous name ever, think very, very old fashioned like something out of a Charles Dickins novel. The poor thing is really going to it in the neck when he starts school :-(

They don't seem to realise that people dressed like that thirty years ago. They think they're so original.

The beards are jolly.

Hipsters are great fun to observe!

Hipsters try to look as if they have made no effort and are asexual. Like a counter to the Joey Essex orange look, they try to be as inoffensive as possible.

They read the Guardian and fancy themselves as one of life's guardians, always ready to moralise but never keen on actually doing anything.

They are from Surrey but moved to Clapham/Tooting/Battersea after graduating.

They love the Notting Hill Carnival and think Brixton is so cool.

Their favourite dinner is some kind of quinoa/lentil concoction - anything that would "put hairs on yer chest" is too masculine and to be avoided.

As previously mentioned they do love a craft beer. They get drunk easily and then they get robbed on the way home.

Their front man could be Russell Brand.

thanks fuck I'm old

the thought of going out and having to fancy some bloke with a big beard makes me puke