OPINION
The Battalion I 4.14.15
Swipe right for revelation
Shelby Knowles —THE BATTALION
Keep College Station weird
Aggieland ranked No. 5 on hipster city poll, which isn't as
surprizing as you'd think
Katie Canales
(WKatieCanalesl
ollege Station is known for Aggieland, its
■ country atmosphere and especially its con-
M servative culture. It’s not known for being
in any way associated with the vintage-
wearing, non-conforming hipster subculture much
more identifiable with places like New York City
or Austin.
However, these were two of the hipster-invaded
places that failed to make the Top U.S Cities for
Hipsters list constructed by a FindYourHome.com
analysis. Instead, the list consisted of places like
Iowa City at No. 17, Hoboken, New Jersey, at No.
1 and, wait for it — our beloved College Station
was ranked No. 5 for the top hipster cities in the
nation.
It shocked me, too, at first. But taking into
account the characters tics FindYourHome.com
anayzed in each area of the country, it makes pretty
good sense that College Station, a small Texas
town, is high on the list.
First, a little background on the hipster subcul
ture. Urban Dictionary defines “hipster’’ as follows:
A subculture of men and women typically in their
20s and 30s that value independent thinking, coun
ter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of
art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence and witty
banter. From my own experience (1 grew up out
side of Austin and passed through adolescence very
much absorbed in the hipster sphere), I can verify
that definition. Hipsters are also easily identified by
long mountain-man beards, flannels, androgynous
characteristics, thrifted retro clothing, shoes and
accessories, and are seen passing their time in coffee
shops, among other locations. Which brings me to
how Aggieland has been dubbed a hipster hub.
FindYourHome.com focused on these four
demographics in its analysis: Age, level of education
and number of coffeeshops and yoga studios. The
website found that the common denominators with
all the “hip” cities on the list were the high concen
tration of the 20-22 age group, the people in that
group pursuing a higher level of education and the
number of coffeeshops and yoga studios in the area.
College Station consists mostly of college stu
dents, ages 18-23, give or take, and is home to ap
proximately 20 coffeeshops, excluding major chains
such as Starbucks, and about five yoga studios.
To give some comparison, these numbers are
multiplied in places like Austin and New York. The
reason, I would guess, why College Station ranked
ahead of these places is there are more hipsters per
coffee shop and yoga studio here then there are in
the Texas Capitol City and the Big Apple.
This most likely applies to the other places on the
list that people were shocked to see called hipster
sanctuaries, particularly small college towns consist
ing of a large population of young people.
I’ve seen mixed reactions among Aggies to the
study done, mainly incredulity. But I assure you,
once you enter the hipster’s natural habitat, you’ll
find that College Station is more hipster-ridden
than you previously thought.
It’s next to impossible to walk into Sweet Eu
gene’s or Mugwalls or the Village Cafe and not spot
one studying in the corner, wearing thick-rimmed
glasses that may or may not be fake, sipping a cup of
coffee and jamming out to Arctic Monkeys or Bon
Iver.
College Station making this list may just be
because of the hipster-to-coffeeshop ratio, but I see
it as another sign of the art scene growing out of
this long-time conservative region. If you’ve never
stepped foot in one of the cafes around town, I
encourage you to try it out and see what you find
— unless you’re too cool for that.
Katie Canales is a journalism sophomore and
life & arts editor for The Battalion.
"I've seen
mixed
reactions
among Aggies
to the study
done, mainly
incredulity.
But I assure
you, once
you enter
the hipster's
natural
habitat,
you'll find
that College
Station is
more hipster-
ridden than
you previously
thought."
Tinder is more than its stereotype
Cfjreileyi
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■||^^ ating is not my forte.
I My first kiss was a botched
Midnight Yell attempt. We went to
Midnight Yell, the lights went out
— and nothing. Later I found out he had
gotten nervous because it w T as my first kiss.
Adorable. So we met up a few nights later
and walked around campus. And we kissed.
And like any good first kiss, it was extremely
awkward. Then he walked me back to my
dorm and I never saw him again.
So ... 1 am flirting inept. And 1 didn’t
understand it. I low did people flirt so effort
lessly? I wanted to perform a type of social
study, and when thinking of places where
people go to meet and flirt, one app came to
mind — Tinder.
Yes, Tipder. The place where hookups and
just all-arlBid nonsense takes place. I made
the decision to join Tinder at 2 a.m., thinking
I should have followed the advice from “How
I Met Your Mother” in the process. I didn’t
sign on to find someone. That was the fur
thest thife from my mind. It started as a social
experiment — I was curious to see just how
true the stereotypes surrounding Tinder were.
The results were mixed. While the app met
some of my expectations in terms of dating
conversation, it broke some stereotypes I had
regarding Tinder as a communication tool.
From the beginning, the app did not func
tion the way I expected it to. For those of
you without a Tinder account, I’ll give you
a summary. Essentially, a picture of someone
of the opposite sex (or same, depending on
your indication) along with their age and first
name. If you want to learn more, you click
on their profile and there’s an About Me
section, followed by a shared likes based on
Facebook profiles. If you want to match with
the person, you swipe to the right. If you
don’t, swipe to the left. The mechanics are
simple. If you get a match, the site alerts you
and prompts you to message the person.
At first, I messaged no one. I wanted to see
how long it would take them to message me
first. After I had gotten a few matches, and no
messages, I was beginning to feel confused.
After the match, wasn’t the person supposed
to message you saying some cheesy line or
just bluntly stating they wanted to have sex? I
asked my friend, who has been on Tinder for
about a year longer than I have, and she said
that’s not the case.
Instead, the match acts as an ego boost.
The thought process is, “Hey, that person
thinks I’m cute-interesting-likeable enough
that they want to match with me. That’s
cool.” Cue going on with going through
GUEST COLUMN
Jennifer, 21
Jennifer, 21
5 miles away
active! day <•>»»
Alioul Jennifer
When lilt? gives you lemons, keep them
Iky.free lemons.
Kelly Burroughs — THE BATTALION
a fist of potentials. So I tried messaging a
few people. Some were the typical “Hiya,”
while others were a bit more creative. I asked
questions such as, “If you could see into the
future, what would you not want to see?”
And people responded. I think I actually got
more responses when I asked questions than
when I just said hi.
And yes, there were people who asked to
have sex with me. There were people who
Tindered while drunk, or used terrible, and
sometimes offensive, lines. But there were
also people who, like me, were there for
conversation. Some may say I was Tindering
wrong, and while according to marketing I
probably was, I found something that I had
actually been looking for — a way to connect
with people.
This needs some background. I do not
friend strangers on Facebook. I do not friend
people unless I actually know them personal
ly. However, I had a thought at the beginning
of the semester about how it would be cool
to have somewhere online to talk to people I
didn’t know, and just talk. And in a way that
I did not see coming. Tinder provided that.
I’ve even been on a few real life dates that
have gone well.
Right now, I’m still not sure how I feel
about my experience on Tinder. While the
site itself has a less-than-preferable market
ing strategy which could lead to dangerous
situations if people aren’t careful, the people
on the site are just that, people. They have
opinions and voices and sometimes just need
someone to talk to. Maybe they’re not com
fortable talking in social situations in real life.
Will I keep an account forever? Not likely.
Fm definitely not on it as much as I was when
I first started my account. But I will say this
— Tinder surprised me.
Jennifer Reiley is a communication senior and
assistant managing editor for The Battalion.
IfA&M can renovate Kyle Field, why can f t it
handle parking without disrupting youth soccer?
A
s a faculty member and U8
soccer coach, I was appalled to
hear that Texas A&M University
officials are negotiating with City
of College Station officials to use Veterans
Park and Athletic Complex (VPAC) as a
parking lot for “Get to the Grid” in Fall
2015. Local media have already reported on
the position of the Brazos Valley Youth Soc
cer Association (BVYSA), which I and many
other soccer moms and dads (and their kids)
strongly endorse. It is obvious that the use of
VPAC as a parking lot would displace several
Saturday youth soccer games. According
to BVYSA, College Station officials told
University officials that VPAC had low or no
use on Saturdays — a claim entirely untrue.
I urge Battalion staff to investigate how Col
lege Station officials portrayed the Saturday
use of VPAC to University officials.
The use of VPAC for “Get to the Grid”
is bad policy and bad politics. It’s bad policy
because the University should resolve its
parking issues for football game day within
facilities that it controls, rather than shift the
parking burden on others. In previous years,
Post Oak Mall partly met the parking need.
But Post Oak Mall is an entity that serves the
retail and restaurant business. It is entirely
unlike VPAC in every way: taxpayers sup
port VPAC and they use VPAC every day,
for walking, picnics, softball and soccer. I’m
not sure why College Station officials seem
so eager to sell out youth soccer for parking,
but that’s another matter.
It’s also bad politics for the University,
because if this deal is confirmed, then local
youth soccer will be held hostage to the
kickoff times that the SEC, TV and cable
determine. The University will be seen as
a hapless and uninformed intermediary that
somehow ignored its considerable negative
impact on local youth recreational activities.
I hope the idea to turn VPAC into a foot
ball game-day parking lot finds its appropri
ate resolution: University officials should
abandon the VPAC parking option. They
should walk away from a potentially damag
ing political saga and think more creatively
about how to get fans to football game
without seriously dismpting Saturday youth
soccer games. If this University can renovate
Kyle Field, then why can’t we figure out
where to park cars without disrupting kids
playing soccer games?
Christian Brannstrom, professor and director of
Environmental Programs, College of Geosciences
B ATT AS KS: What did you think about the Game of Thrones premiere Sunday?
"The episode last night was kind of uneventful. I guess
it was just like a welcome back to the series. I liked it
though. It's hard to think about the first episode when
I saw the other two leaked episodes — I didn't like that
Sansa has to marry that guy who betrayed their family.
I liked the part about Cersei's past being, I guess, the
ugly duckling and showing the reason she wanted to
protect her previous king."
Ashley Justynski
anthropology freshman
Frederica Shih — THE BATTALION
"I thought it was amazing. I really enjoyed the Cersei
flashbacks, because they had never done that in the
show before, it showed Cersei and how she's kind of
the queen behind the scenes, and showed her as a
little girl going to a fortune teller, and them telling her
how her children are going to die and all that stuff.
That was surprising. I've kind of read some of the
books, so nothing was too surprising."
Braifey Strain
biomedical sciences sophomore
Lanae Allen — THE BATTALION