Narcyzm hipsterski

This article discusses the topic of narcissism on hipster visual blogs where the identity constructed by their authors has a narcissistic dimension defined primarily by the medium they use: photos, texts, short videos and sounds, whereby the former prevail. People who publish such blogs have created a specific code and manner in which they present their real identity by means of visual representations which they borrow from other members of this post-subculture. It is a result of a tendency to disguise oneself by using certain methods of self-presentation. They include self-defining photos of modern hipsters, which however are out of focus or accordingly filtered, show selected cultural practices from a distance or only parts of the body and clothing, a set of gadgets and environments recognised as hipster. As such they reveal conformist inclinations that are in line with the reference group and what is expected from it. This means that cultural practices that create the identity of a digital hipster are associated with generating a symbolic universe of meanings, where nostalgia, symbolism, iconography of selected elements of life are among frequently posted motives (cups of coffee, a bicycle, a collection of vinyl records, hipster clothes, specific urban spaces, nature, etc.). This kind of narcissism is about looking at one’s own reflection; however, not so much in the mirror as in symbolic visual representations characteristic of the entire digital hipster culture. Using netnography and based on their content analysis of 48 blogs, the authors argue that the development of one’s hipster narcissistic identity is part of a media practice that revolves around building the ‘self’ by referring to cultural codes shared by members of the hipster post-subculture (‘I’ and ‘us’). As a result, the hipster narcissism studied here seems to take the form and cultural identity of bricolage, and as such is subject to commodification.