Dude Was Mad His Image Was Used In An Article To Show That Hipsters Look The Same…Only To Find Out It Wasn’t Him

I might do hipster things, but I’m not a hipster. I kind of think of hipsters as directionless butterflies who thrift constantly, sip fancy coffee and carry around Polaroid cameras. And they may or may not be a beanie-wearing guitar player on a worship team. I know that’s the most stereotype-y stereotype ever, but that’s what I have in my head.

But I do enjoy hipster “things.” I love fancy toast and cheeseboards. I wear beanies sometimes, and my two favorite coffee shops are as hipster as they get. One of them tries to promote hay straws, which are horrid.

I think we can all agree that we might do “hipster” things, but it doesn’t make us one. But one thing is for SURE: Hipsters have a certain look. That brings me to this article titled: “The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same.”

You feel alienated from mainstream culture and want to make a statement that you are not part of it. You think about wearing different clothes, experimenting with a new hairstyle, or even trying unconventional makeup and grooming products.

And yet when you finally reveal your new look to the world, it turns out you are not alone—millions of others have made exactly the same choices. Indeed, you all look more or less identical, the exact opposite of the countercultural statement you wanted to achieve.

This is the hipster effect—the counterintuitive phenomenon in which people who oppose mainstream culture all end up looking the same. Similar effects occur among investors and in other areas of the social sciences.

He’s on to something. This is so true.

If you click on the original article, you’ll see a picture of a dude who looks very much like a hipster. Well, that dude contacted the author of the article, because he was mad that he used his image to prove that all hipsters look the same, because they SO DO NOT!

Just one problem. The angry guy misidentified himself. It wasn’t even him. He got confused, because HIPSTERS LOOK THE SAME.

A few days ago we ran a piece in @techreview about some research purporting to explain the “hipster effect”—the fact that nonconformists often end up nonconforming in the same way. We used a stock Getty photo of a hipster-ish-looking man. https://t.co/8LB6qLSmgS

— Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield) March 6, 2019

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Freakin’ hilarious. Story endings don’t get better than that!