The book
How the Rising Tide of Individuality is Changing Everything We Know about Life, Work and the Pursuit of Happiness
Subcultures have evolved. The internet has completely changed not only how we live our lives, but how we form and maintain our fundamental identities. The traditional wall between life and work is eroding as quickly as you can say “Facebook.” Now what?
There’s no question that the internet has transformed both our society and our day-to-day lives, but how? And what do hipsters have to do with it anyways? “The Hipster Effect” tackles the phenomenon of the modern hipster by looking beyond PBR and thick-rimmed glasses and to the cultural and social conditions that resulted in this new breed of über-individual. Part social commentary and part sociological analysis—combined with a fair dose of cultural anecdotes and humor—“The Hipster Effect” takes a wide-angled lens to the subject that everybody’s joking about but few are taking seriously (despite the cultural evolution it clearly reveals).
The social world has already changed. We’re revealing more about ourselves and expressing ourselves more boldly than ever before, and our visibility is increasing with every year that goes by and every new technology that’s added to our online roster. This is the Hipster Effect and we’re all becoming a part of it, whether we admit to it or not—only contrary to popular belief, this is actually a good thing. Read on.
Book excerpts
Book excerpt: Translate My Outfit
“The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize.” – Steel Magnolias
Well, that and walk-in closets. After all, is there any better indication of the modern obsession with personal appearance than our need to have an entire room dedicated to housing our threads, kicks and baubles? There’s clothes for work, clothes for working out, clothes for going out, clothes for staying in, clothes for fancy occasions, clothes for going to the beach… (read more)
“What’s ‘dude?’ Is that like ‘dude ranch?’”
“Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.”
– Easy Rider, 1969
“Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not ‘Mr. Lebowski.’ You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”
– The Big Lebowski, 1998… (read more)
Book excerpt: The Age of the Remix
It’s fun to find something cool on the internet.
It’s even more fun to share it with somebody else.
Such is the ethos behind the wildly popular Reddit community, a social news website where eight million active users submit content and vote it up or down in popularity and site ranking. With over 111,000 topical “subreddits” and a voting-based comment system that encourages… … (read more)
Cover illustration by João Raposo
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