http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/?ref=opinion
This New York Times article discusses our generation's creation of the hipster. It describes the hipster as a problem free, careless person, who gains benefits from society without actually contributing anything. The style and overall lifestyle was thought to be created because our generation has little to do in terms of culture. We have the belief that everything has already been done, so we dress, talk, and think ironically all the time. This article really applies to how America is a consumer culture. We not only rely on material things, but our lifestyle revolves around them, making our generation the "ironic" one.
In commenting on material culture, it bears close relation to the body electric, and the ways in which people are influenced by material culture. The ways in which this article comments on americans as reliant on material things is similar to the reliance of males on electric belts as described in The Body Electric. Both cases present examples of individuals dependent on a commercial item to maintain their social identity.
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