Desiree Seisa
COMM 541
Professor R. Lescure
25 May 2016
Final Paper Over the last two decades, the increase of accessibility and ability to connect with others has tremendously expanded, creating an innumerable amount of diverse opportunities for self-expression. While this has opened up many doors for people to discover different styles and spark new interests, it can also create a sense of loss of identity through the limitless world of the Internet as social media and online communities voice a massive amount of opinions that can negatively affect how individuals think for themselves and form their own unique sense of identity. By definition today, “hipsters” are a group of people that value progressive politics, counter-culture, independent thinking, and have a deep appreciation of art and music yet ironically tend to voice their opinions through the means of social media and technology. A “hipster” is a label that many people tend to put on others, but rarely do we think deeply on what it means to be one. The purpose here is not to condemn the subculture or to question its significance, but rather to raise awareness and draw limitations of what hipness is from a cultural perspective of African American music and art, how whites identify themselves with black culture, and the meaning behind who …show more content…
Although one cannot pinpoint exactly where the term “hipster” originated, the most common knowledge is that the word “hipster” was used first in the 1940s used to describe jazz music enthusiasts. The link between white middle-class American youth and black urban working-class during this era is heavily grounded in the jazz music scene, and black culture is a major determining influence in a large amount of subcultures in America, particularly
COMM 541
Professor R. Lescure
25 May 2016
Final Paper Over the last two decades, the increase of accessibility and ability to connect with others has tremendously expanded, creating an innumerable amount of diverse opportunities for self-expression. While this has opened up many doors for people to discover different styles and spark new interests, it can also create a sense of loss of identity through the limitless world of the Internet as social media and online communities voice a massive amount of opinions that can negatively affect how individuals think for themselves and form their own unique sense of identity. By definition today, “hipsters” are a group of people that value progressive politics, counter-culture, independent thinking, and have a deep appreciation of art and music yet ironically tend to voice their opinions through the means of social media and technology. A “hipster” is a label that many people tend to put on others, but rarely do we think deeply on what it means to be one. The purpose here is not to condemn the subculture or to question its significance, but rather to raise awareness and draw limitations of what hipness is from a cultural perspective of African American music and art, how whites identify themselves with black culture, and the meaning behind who …show more content…
Although one cannot pinpoint exactly where the term “hipster” originated, the most common knowledge is that the word “hipster” was used first in the 1940s used to describe jazz music enthusiasts. The link between white middle-class American youth and black urban working-class during this era is heavily grounded in the jazz music scene, and black culture is a major determining influence in a large amount of subcultures in America, particularly