New Hipster Phenomenon Taking off in Waterloo

Restaurant owners around Waterloo are reporting a disturbing new trend. It’s called ‘hipstagramming’, and involves taking pictures of hipster ‘foodstagramers,’ or ‘foodies’ in the act of photographing their food, then posting those pictures to Instagram. ‘Foodies’, for those not in the know, are hipsters who take pictures of their food nearly incessantly, before posting those pictures to social media sites like Facebook, or Instagram from which they derive their name.

An example of a ‘Hipstagram’
Courtesy of http://sunset-sarsaparilla.tumblr.com/

“We’ve been seeing more and more ‘Foodies’ coming into restaurants to take pictures of food. It doesn’t bother me, but I know some of my fellow restaurant owners really hate it,” said Theresa St John, owner of Angelo’s Korean Kitchen in Uptown Waterloo.

What’s the problem with Foodstagramming?

Some restaurant owners have banned ‘Foodstagramming’ from their restaurant because they find it “obnoxious”, “annoying to other customers” and “really, really obnoxious.” There have been reports of Foodies asking patrons to relocate, standing on other patron’s tables, and repelling down from the outside of the building just to get the perfect shot. The photos are given a filter to make the image appear vintage before they are uploaded to social media sites, generally with pointlessly long hashtags, like #raspberryavocadobruschettapanini, #soylattesareprettyalright, or #hastaggingmyphotonow.

But here’s the catch…

No one has been able to ascertain whether these so called ‘Hipstagrammers’ are ironic heroes or just plain stupid. “It could be an incredibly Meta form vigilantism. Taking pictures of people taking pictures? Not only is that Meta but also pleasantly ironic for those who realise that the ‘Hipstagrammers’ are making fun of ‘Foodstagrammers’,” said Michael Chung, PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo in Sub-Cultural Studies. “Of course,” said Chung, “some people also think that these ‘Hipstagrammers’ have their hipster tendencies so deeply ingrained into their persona that they think they’re up on the new trend. Which is apparently photographing other hipsters photographing their food.”

As of yet no restaurants have banned ‘Hipstagrammers’, but according to Theresa St John “it’s only a matter of time before someone takes it too far.”

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