How Hipsters Stay Hip

Hey cool cats, take a break from listening to The Decemberists and read this: there might be some science behind your hipness.

Harvard researchers published an article entitled "Social Selection and Peer Influence in an Online Social Network" in which they discussed collecting Facebook data from 200 college students over a four-year period with the goal of determining why friends are similar. One thing they discovered is that friends tend to become friends because they are similar.

But don't worry about turning into a trendsetting square any time soon. Once you have friends, the research shows that if they start humming along to indie/alternative bands, you're significantly less likely to start jamming to the same tunes. According to the research, classical and jazz are the only kinds of music that are socially contagious.

"The meaning of indie alternative taste lies not in taste itself, but in being the only one in your group that likes it," said Kevin Lewis, lead researcher, Ph.D. Candidate in the sociology department, and a tutor in Currier House. "If friends start liking the same band I do then I'm no longer distinctive, it's no longer unique myself, so I'm more likely to drop it and find another 'hip' band."

You dig? Your uniqueness is safe, as long as you have friends.