hip·ster1 [hip-ster] –noun Slang.

1. a particular breed of middle to upper class 20 some things that tend to inhabit surrounding neighborhoods of urban areas. The hipster generally has money, yet shuns conventional materialism. They try to appear starving, broken, and angry, yet have the comfort of living in $2000 lofts. Trust funds are a common commodity among hipsters.

The goal of the hipster is to look ironic.

The hipster handbook defines the hipster as “One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term “cool”: a Hipster would instead say “deck.”)

The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitch anything held dear by the mainstream. A Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat.”

It becomes a difficult task to then differentiate between those who actually cannot eat, shower, or afford clothes. The hipster’s style aesthetic is influenced by the homeless. The hairstyles worn by the hipster is generally ragged, dirty, and has the appearance of a lack of care though often hours of care is put into the upkeep of said look.

In areas such as Williamsburg is generally safe to assume that anyone possessing this look is indeed a hipster.

Clutching their Ipods and sipping PBR, the hipster has taken over areas that were once affordable and turned them into a hipster oasis prompting stores such as Brooklyn Industries and American Apparel to move into these neighborhoods.

In main urban areas, like Manhattan, it becomes difficult to distinguish between “homeless” and “hipster.” Unkept hair, dirty clothes, a general disdain for life in general? Homeless or hipster? You decide!

Test your skills with these nifty photos so you don’t give spare change to someone with a trust fund. Play the game after the jump:

Click on a photo to determine “Hipster or Homeless?” Good Luck.

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

7. 8.

Which makes for quite an expensive pile of trash. Add that to all your neighbors doing the same thing and you have yourself a nice little collection of goodies; a lot of it still in very good shape. Good enough, some argue, to take for themselves.

Who are those people? Well, the Freegans, of course. I was first introduced to Freegan culture while reading an article in the New York Times the other day. “Freegans are scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism.”

In other words, Freegans are price savvy people who decide to make another man’s trash their treasure.

And it is quite brilliant. According to the article, Freegans in New York City gather in front of the NYU dorms at the end of every school year and wait to cash in on trash the predominantly wealthy student body leaves behind. They have walked away with everything from old Yaffa blocks to working TVs and iPods.

The idea of sifting through someone else’s garbage seemed a little gross at first until I realized the possibilities. If any of the students are like me then they are throwing away perfectly good things that they just don’t want/need/care to take with them. If I have to jump into a pile of trash (or free merchandise depending how you look at it) to get a free iPod then so be it! I am a starving college graduate, damnit. I will do anything to save a dollar.

I just wish I had known about this back in my college days. It is never too late, though; I will definitely be joining those Ann Arbor Freegans when UofM get out next year. Dumpster, here I come!