Hip? Square? You be the judge...

Hip
1. Hip Hop
2. Cosmopolitan
3. Going Green
4. Canvas bags
5. Short shorts
6. Flip flops
7. Fitness
8. iPods
9. Natural tan
10. Hookah
11. Working hard
12. MTV
13. Liberal
14. Pot
15. Parties
16. Twilight
17. Spending
18. Excitement
19. Questioning
20. Change
21. Success
22. Stylish hair
23. Texting
24. X-Box 360
25. Facebook
26. Honesty
27. Spirituality
28. Youth
29. Independence
30. Nonconformity


Square
1. Country
2. Science Daily
3. Polluting
4. Plastic bags
5. Pants above the waist
6. Socks with sandals
7. Out of shape
8. CD players
9. Skin cancer
10. Cigarettes
11. Hardly working
12. CSPAN
13. Conservative
14. Meth
15. Going to class
16. Lord of the Rings
17. Saving
18. Boredom
19. Complaining
20. Predictability
21. Failure
22. Mullets
23. Actually talking
24. Dreamcast (For those of us who still play them…)
25. Email
26. Hypocrisy
27. Religion
28. Aging
29. Dependence
30. Conformity*

*One thing I notice when reading or creating lists such as this one is that in qualifying something such as “Hip” you are contradicting one of the main aspects of what it is to be hip or cool. Coolness comes with uniqueness and nonconformity, but that idea is full of hypocrisy because to be cool or hip you have to conform to the rules of it. It’s often hard to tell the difference among members of the in-crowd because in trying to be hip they’ve merely created clones of the trend-starter. So if nonconformity is a part of being cool, then is it the hip, in-crowd that’s really cool for following one another’s’ leads, or is it the “square” who gets labeled as “lame” for daring to be different?

I would definitely call myself “square,” at least according to popular opinion. I cross into both lists in different ways, but by most social standards I not “hip.” Take video games for example. I listed the X-Box 360 as hip and the Sega Dreamcast as square. Why? Because people are paying hundreds to get their hands on the newest X-Box, and most people under the age of 15 have never even heard of a Dreamcast. It wasn’t even successful enough in it’s day to be remembered as a legend like the old-school Nintendos are. I still love the Dreamcast though because it was a staple of my childhood, and I still enjoy playing games such as “Worms: Armageddon” on it today. Technology is a major factor in being hip, and I don’t have it on my side usually. I don’t own a touch-screen phone or have a GPS system in my car to talk to; in fact, I barely operate outside the limits of my meager 8 gigabyte iPod.

As a rule though, I, like most people am not absolutely hip or square. In fact, with the diversity and constant changing of the world around us, it is hard to definitively call anything cool. Making a list like this one is fruitless because by the time it’s done it will be outdated. Hip and square are best judged by the beholder, not set in stone for all to follow.