There’s an epidemic sweeping America, and it’s not the avian flu. It’s the people who think they own the scene, commonly referred to as “scenesters.” Even if you aren’t familiar with the word, you probably know someone who has the qualities of a scene kid.

The guys who wear girls pants. The girls who wear five pounds of eyeliner and five studded belts. The kids with the two-toned hair that falls all over their faces who seem to lack personality.

Urban Dictionary describes them as “idiots with no identity.” I agree.

The kids with obnoxious MySpaces. MySpaces with 12 self-portraits taken at weird angles of a kid who never smiles, who has 5 bazillion friends, the majority whom they’ve never met.

The kids who are always at your local concerts, no matter how bad the band is.

Scenesters are music aficionados, and they will always believe that their music is better than yours. They are so enthusiastic that they sometimes fervently believe that their music is so much better than yours that they will treat people they deem unworthy with disdain.

The ironic part to this pretentiousness is that fact that most scenesters can’t discern good music from bad music and worship the joke of a band known as My Chemical Romance.

My home state, New Jersey (not surprisingly, the home state of My Chemical Romance), seems to be the epicenter of scene kids. In high school, there was an explosion of them as everyone shifted from listening to rap and pop to music usually below the mainstream radar, which disrupted the natural balance of life.

These kids, with their tight pants, rotten attitudes, hideous hair and lame MySpaces came to school with their music pretensions, and suddenly it was really cool to listen to Screamo and be totally hXc, yeah!

I saw many of my friends swayed by the scenester way being sucked in to “holier than thou” ideals and crowds who would pick and choose who they like and who they speak to.

Needless to say, I’m not very fond of the scene – or scenesters, for that matter.

I don’t like that scene kids are exclusive and closed minded.

I dislike them for looking down on people for enjoying Mates of State, for being something other than completely miserable, or for, thankfully, not knowing the lead singer of some terrible band.

Their identity is defined by how they used to jam with some singers-cousin’s-best friend’s boyfriend before the singer was big and MySpace picture comments where they are self-assured when people who are just like them leave comments that read something like “you’re hawt, let’s have sexx.”

I cannot respect people who have to try that hard to be something, and at the expense of other people’s feelings; I cannot respect stupid people who act pretentious; and I hate people who walk around with an undeserved sense of smugness. Most scenesters do all the above and more.

I know stereotyping is bad, and while I’ve met scene kids who are nice, the majority of them have left such a terrible impression on me.

As My Chemical Romance said in their song “I’m Not Ok (I Promise),” “You wear me out.” And as for scene kids, well they really do wear me out.