Modern Hippies Vs. Traditional Hippies: The Differences Explained

The ideological differences between modern and traditional hippies are almost nonexistent. But the differences in access and tools used are always expanding.

Gone are the days of hand-cranked mimeographs, printing up the latest info on where to go for the next sit-ins for peace, or mass advertising the latest concerts. Standing beside the road with a thumb in the air to get a ride to the latest event is not the best or cheapest mode of travel anymore.

The internet brought emails, blogs, social media, texting, and live-video chats, making information sharing instantaneous. Common satellite access to GPS has made it easier to get where you’re going. Ride-sharing apps and broader urban public transportation has made cost-effective travel safer and more direct.

Currently, there are ways to earn money through sponsorship and advertising for social media influencers, so some of the modern hippie-type wandering and spiritual journeys manage to fund themselves.

The Concept Of Modern Hippies

A huge shift to organic and sustainable living has followed hippies from the 1960s into current time. Modern hippies have used a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience, and tech in order to make sustainable agriculture more accessible to all. From rural seed shares to urban box gardens in unused locations, communities everywhere are benefitting from the modern hippies who have pushed these renewable commodities as a priority. Not all hippies are vegetarian or vegan, but a significant amount do practice that lifestyle.

The traditional hippie advocacy for cleaner living has also pushed alternative energy resources:

• Avoiding harmful effects of pollution
• The promotion of solar panels
• Cleaner packaging
• Less plastic usage
• More carefully considered household materials

The anti-war shift segued directly into a pro-green movement of the 1970s and 80s. The children that grew up with a hole in the ozone layer and diminishing rainforest have become adults that grapple with a shifting global climate. So many modern hippies are now avid advocates for changes that encourage a cleaner environment. 

Modern Vs. Traditional

Traditional hippies had a very different road in front of them than modern hippies currently do.

As a whole, traditional hippies stuck out like a sore thumb among the dapper suits and demure dresses of the suburban house owners of that time. Long hair, uncontrolled body hair, bohemian and East Indian-inspired clothing, bare feet, and the ever-present aroma of patchouli oil firmly placed traditional hippies into a firmly defined class who largely were excluded from society.

This exclusion was greeted warmly by these hippies. They were happy to exclude themselves from the commercialistic, capitalistic rat race, but they also wanted to push more peaceful, free love into mainstream society. Very little gray area existed in the 1960s and 1970s: people either despised hippies or loved them.

Modern hippies live in a time when self-expression and individualism is a more mainstream cultural value. Alternative lifestyle acceptance has emerged from previous decades. Clothing and hair, makeup or lack of makeup: these no longer separate the hippies from “the man.”

Being counter-cultural becomes a lot more confusing when there are several cultures coexisting fairly peacefully in society. Some hippies still consider themselves to be fairly progressive in their views. Many seek personal freedom, but also radical social change. Many still prefer a  natural, organic lifestyle.

Modern hippies, savvy about how true political change occurs over time, may push more into the political sphere and the public service arena. Some modern hippies still consider their “carbon footprint” and avoid man-made materials when choosing clothing and household goods. Some continue to avoid animal products as clothing.

Sustainable cotton, upcycled, and thrifted clothing heavily represent modern hippie clothing. A natural hairstyle without processing chemicals, and using facial and body products with simple, basic ingredients also play a key role in how modern hippies present themselves to the world. 

Modern Vs. Neo

“Modern hippie” and “neo-hippie” are terms that can be interchanged easily. The wide range of people who belong to these groups have enough in common to belong to the same movement.

Having grown up in a society where self-expression is encouraged, many modern hippies balk when it comes to labels and creating a subgroup separate from society.

Hesitance to label themselves leads to a perception in society that hippies no longer exist. There isn’t a current cohesive “hippie movement.” Modern neo-hippies have much to share with each other and the world.

If you resonate with this ideology, and you think you are a neo-hippie of any variety, you belong at Hippie Registration.