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Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It’s A Different Person

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Recently, MIT Technology Review posted an article, titled ‘The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same.’ And in an incredibly ironic turn of events, it almost instantly proved itself right.

The article was an analysis of recent research by Brandeis University mathematician Jonathan Touboul on “the hipster style effect,” specifically how “the population of hipsters initially act randomly but then undergo a phase transition into a synchronized state.”

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

However, it was the inclusion of a Getty Images stock photo of a bearded man that prompted one reader to contact the magazine. “Your lack of basic journalistic ethics in both how you ‘reported’ this uncredited nonsense, and the abusive, unnecessary use of my picture without permission demands a response, and I am, of course, pursuing legal action,” the angry person wrote.

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

MIT Technology Review Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield explained everything in detail on Twitter.

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: glichfield

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

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Image credits: glichfield

“We haven’t received a similar claim that I’m aware of in the time I’ve been editor (but that’s only 15 months),” Lichfield told Bored Panda. “[And] that was the only communication we had with him.”

“I looked at what his accusation was, and I said, he seems to be accusing us of implying that he’s following hipster fashion. I’m pretty sure that can’t be prosecuted for slander,” Lichfield said. “My second thought was, you know, I’m sure that we used this photo following the license and we got it from a reputable agency, so there shouldn’t be a problem with using it even if the photo model in the picture doesn’t like the implication.”

“So I forwarded the email to our art department …, and their response was, “Yes, we have the right license. But, you know, we can take the picture down anyway if he’s annoyed. But our creative director said no, this was an image that we used with permission and perfectly under our rights. We shouldn’t take it down just get somebody doesn’t like it.”

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

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Image credits: glichfield

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: istock/PeopleImages

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: glichfield

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Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: glichfield

And that’s how a 34-page study got proven in a brief round of email ping pong. “They wrote to him and … said, ‘We don’t think this stock photo model is you.’ And he replied, ‘Oh, I guess you’re right, it’s not,'” Lichfield explained. “No apology, but, you know, I’m happy that it’s resolved.”

However, he’s not saying that the reader was crazy to convince himself that was indeed his photo. “I mean, you know, the picture is in profile. He’s wearing a hat, so it covers his hair. And, you know, as a no-longer-in-his-30s white man with a beard, I know that a lot of white men in their 30s with beards look kind of similar. So I guess it doesn’t surprise me that much.”

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People had a lot to say about the whole ordeal

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: realnzall

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: kithrup

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Image credits: logotrix

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

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Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

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Hipster Gets Furious About His Photo Being Used For An Article About All Hipsters Looking The Same, Turns Out It's A Different Person

Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

What do you think ?

Ronald Burggraaf 5 years ago

https://youtu.be/KHbzSif78qQ Monty Python Life of Brian. Brian: "You are all individuals" Man in the crowd: "I'm not"

66points

Janine B. 5 years ago

lol 10 upvotes from me.

12points

Load More Replies...

diane a 5 years ago

Eez not the Messaiah - Eez a very naughty boy.

1point

diane a 5 years ago

Eric Idle?

1point

Tarmin Slingerfinger 5 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Mark CM 5 years ago

I away's identified with that man! LOL

0points

Catlady6000 5 years ago

Gibson girls in the late 1800s, Flappers in the 1920s, beatniks, hippies, punks, goths, rockers, country, hipsters, Republicans, etc all have their uniforms

11points

Wyndmere 5 years ago

(So do democrats.) -- This happens with every generation and nich/facet of society.

6points

Load More Replies...

Sara Johnston 5 years ago

As I read the comments I think, well unless you sew all your own clothes it's pretty impossible NOT to look like a clone of whatever cultural group shops in the same milieu of stores. We all need to feel a sense of belonging. It might be in a tiny group of close friends or a big social strata where we work. Part of the signal you belong is tied up in appearance. That's only the superficial part that identifies the stuff inside the individual. The trick is not to bad-mouth the appearance of the groups you're not a part of. We all look like somebody else, a little or a lot.

7points

David Oland 5 years ago

While you shake a finger trying to stick up for them, I say back to you "They stole the look to appear like strong real men." The Pacific NW has loggers, farmers, fishermem, and hunters who include men and women, and for over a century wore a checker or plaid flannel shirt, jeans, thick soled boots, and stocking cap, and men wore suspenders and beard too. Think Paul Bunyan and you get the idea. And these hipsters are from cities, who hate and have never used a rifle to get deer meat, likely cannot tie a fishing line, would never want soil under manicured nails, and please never hold an ax near their hugging tree! They stole the look just like they have stolen afros, and stolen looks of other countries. Should my region feel flattered? Nah, we want to spray paint CITY BOI on their macbooks and Prius. We don't though, because we know they would start lecturing us like you.

1point

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Ronald Burggraaf 5 years ago

https://youtu.be/KHbzSif78qQ Monty Python Life of Brian. Brian: "You are all individuals" Man in the crowd: "I'm not"

66points

Janine B. 5 years ago

lol 10 upvotes from me.

12points

Load More Replies...

diane a 5 years ago

Eez not the Messaiah - Eez a very naughty boy.

1point

diane a 5 years ago

Eric Idle?

1point

Tarmin Slingerfinger 5 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

Mark CM 5 years ago

I away's identified with that man! LOL

0points

Catlady6000 5 years ago

Gibson girls in the late 1800s, Flappers in the 1920s, beatniks, hippies, punks, goths, rockers, country, hipsters, Republicans, etc all have their uniforms

11points

Wyndmere 5 years ago

(So do democrats.) -- This happens with every generation and nich/facet of society.

6points

Load More Replies...

Sara Johnston 5 years ago

As I read the comments I think, well unless you sew all your own clothes it's pretty impossible NOT to look like a clone of whatever cultural group shops in the same milieu of stores. We all need to feel a sense of belonging. It might be in a tiny group of close friends or a big social strata where we work. Part of the signal you belong is tied up in appearance. That's only the superficial part that identifies the stuff inside the individual. The trick is not to bad-mouth the appearance of the groups you're not a part of. We all look like somebody else, a little or a lot.

7points

David Oland 5 years ago

While you shake a finger trying to stick up for them, I say back to you "They stole the look to appear like strong real men." The Pacific NW has loggers, farmers, fishermem, and hunters who include men and women, and for over a century wore a checker or plaid flannel shirt, jeans, thick soled boots, and stocking cap, and men wore suspenders and beard too. Think Paul Bunyan and you get the idea. And these hipsters are from cities, who hate and have never used a rifle to get deer meat, likely cannot tie a fishing line, would never want soil under manicured nails, and please never hold an ax near their hugging tree! They stole the look just like they have stolen afros, and stolen looks of other countries. Should my region feel flattered? Nah, we want to spray paint CITY BOI on their macbooks and Prius. We don't though, because we know they would start lecturing us like you.

1point

Load More Replies...

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