Emancipate yourself from irony

A visitor uses her finger as an ironic Hipster moustache at the second annual Hipster Olympics on July 21, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. (Getty Images)

Hipster bashing has become a popular media pursuit (see: this and this) and the New York Times is not above a gentle dig either, apparently, but this eloquent piece by Christy Wampole goes beyond the usual barrelled fish shooting with both in-depth analysis and practical advice.

"If irony is the ethos of our age - and it is - then the hipster is our archtype of ironic living," writes Wampole before going on to list the familiar tropes of an urban hipster lifestyle (fixed-gear bicycles, moustaches etc.). So how can we escape? In short, stay off the internet ("Our incapacity to deal with the things at hand is evident in our use of, and increasing reliance on, digital technology"), give friends thoughtful gifts and try to imitate the behaviour of a 4-year-old child.