"The globalization of hipsterdom"

I am by no means a big global traveler. I haven't been any place exotic. Or scary. Or off the beaten track. Or requiring a really long flight. Or with a character-based language. Or having a hot climate. 

As a traveler, I've seen the USA - just not entirely (no Alaska, no Tennessee if you don't count Memphis Airport). And I'm a Europhile, having been to European countries a couple of dozen times since I first crossed the pond nearly 50 years ago.

While American culture and consumption were taking some hold - all those GI's hanging around since WWII, all those student backpackers with their Let's Go Europe! guides - back in the early 1970's, foreign places still seemed, well, foreign.

Yes, the first McDonald's in Paris was open - on the Champs-Élysées, and there was a Dairy Queen in Lausanne. (And, yes, I did eat at that McDonald's. But I also ordered brains in a bistro, so it wasn't all ugly Americanism.) But when you were traveling in Europe back in the day, you were certainly aware that you were somewhere else. No ice in a drink in England or Ireland. Hole-in-the-floor toilets in France. Rizogalo,(rice pudding) vendors on every corner in Athens. 

And over time, the influence of American consumer culture grew. Sure, it's a two-way street. Remember the United Colors of Benneton invasion? But American products became ubiquitous. Who knew that Budapest needed Dunkin' Donuts?

Globalization in the way we usually think of it (i.e., Dunkin' Donuts in Budapest) has been somewhat slowing since it's go-go days.

From the 1970s to the early 2000s, the number of countries in which you could get a McDonald’s soared, from just two to over 100. But no new country has welcomed the firm in over four years. Indeed a few places, such as Bolivia and Iceland, have demolished their golden arches. Big expansions of other brands have failed. In January Walmart, an American retailer, began laying off people in India and wrapping up its business there. (Source: The Economist)

No McDonald's in Bolivia? No Walmart in India? I may need to expand my travel horizons! 

Globalization is still with us, but it's shifted from brands to "a new design aesthetic" that's "taking over the world."

Even as formal trade slows, the globalisation of taste is rampant. Starbucks may not have reached large chunks of the world, but there are very few large cities in the world now in which a visitor cannot order a latte surrounded by exposed wood and vintage light bulbs. Kabul boasts no McDonald’s, but you can get a decent burger and fries at Burger House, a restaurant that would not be out of place in San Francisco.

Thanks to Pinterest and Instagram, awareness of the latest styles is spreading. Even in Kabul, where I wouldn't have imagined you could get much of anything other than wacked by the Taliban, young men can get stylin' haircuts, beard trims, and tattoos. Even earrings.

There is even something called the "hipster index", which was invented by a company named Move Hub.

The firm ranked cities by the number of coffee shops, record stores, tattoo parlours, vegan restaurants and vintage boutiques. At the top were predictable spots such as Brighton, in England, and Portland, Oregon, on the west coast of America. But the hipsters have spread much farther afield

Thus there are trendy coffee shops in Kabul. A place in a very sketchy part of Congo where you can find "quinoa protein bowls as well as 'latte macchiatos.'" A craft beer outfit - not surprisingly run by an Irishman - in Kenya.

This is all a pretty good sign. Latte slurping means that the middle class is growing, and that the beggar bowl is being replaced by a quinoa protein bowl.

Migrants are also contributing to the "globalization of hipsterdom."

There are 272m migrants worldwide, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a UN body. That figure represents just 3.5% of the world’s population. But it is at an all-time high. And it is already higher than the IOM’s predictions for 2050 made in 2003. Some are refugees. Many more—nearly two-thirds—are economic migrants.

And then there are all the students studying abroad. Even with COVID and immigration restrictions, the world is teeming with millions of them.

Migrants, refugees, students are expose "to a global culture of trendiness." And they bring it back home with them.

But the Internet - it really did change everything - is the element most responsible for the spread of hipsterdom. If you've got a smartphone, you're able to see what's going on elsewhere.

Most of the hipsters in coffee houses are urban. And "the rise of such a style hints at an urban-rural divide that is growing all over the world." Urban-rural Hmmm. Now where have I heard that before? Was it in a hipster coffee shop? Did Jacob Wohl overhear something?

Snap snap...