I asked someone why they tell stories about themselves?
They responded by saying that is what you know best, you cannot necessarily honestly tell a story from another perspective, you only know your own perspective. I then told him that not necessarily in that sense but more like why do you tell stories at all, on a more general sense. He then replied "to affirm our existance" to get a response from others and see that we are paid attention to. Looking at his response as an existential view, we want the attention from the people to know because we don't want to be alone and we don't want to be ignored or "invisible."
I then asked this person why they behave in a way that is relaxed and independent. He says "because that's what I like to do, I don't like worrying, I don't like the feeling" This seems like a reasonable and authentic answer. But possibly there is a part of him that is aware of this behavior giving him some status and this response is him just deluding himself to believe that he is not doing it to get attention, because trying to be cool is looked down upon in society, but because it is really something that he honestly does for himself and it just comes off as not trying thus having the image of cool.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
HW 30 - Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool
In life we try to make sense out of everything, like what happens after death and why the world is unjust. We make excuses for the world to make ourselves believe that life has a sensible value for us. But according to Camus, there are things in this world that simply don't make sense. The world is unjust, there is love and hate and peace and war and all of it doesn't exactly fit together in a perfect globe like it does in our minds. This is the idea of absurd; the world does not make sense.
"In his essays Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality...While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless)"
We feel emptiness because we are always looking for happiness so we are disappointed when we are faced with unhappiness. "Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalised boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany depression, loneliness, [or] despair. " As Matt Fried says, humans are built with the ability to feel negative emotions as well as positive ones. We can't expect other people to determine our emotions when we give them the power to decide whether we are "cool," or not. Our insecurities lead us to wonder if we are accepted by others. Fried says we should find this happiness from within ourselves because we can rely on ourselves. Relating to Camus, we need to accept the dualisms in our lives but not delude ourselves with the paradoxes of cool.
Also relating to Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man, the main character goes through a similar routine of cool and emptiness. He joins a brotherhood and feels a sense of importance, being "Introduced as a kind of hero"(358) that people care about. Over time he realizes that they were only using him as a tool, "a material, a natural resource to be used."(508) for their group and he says "I felt suddenly empty...Up to now I had felt a wholeness...wholeness that guaranteed that it would change the course of history."(406). He thought he would be a significant figure in the world filling/covering up his emptiness but lost that cover up over time. The connection between emptiness and cool in this case is being cool does not last for as long as you would want it to because things change and people move on (is that absurd? or necessary?) and this leaves you with a feeling of emptiness.
The people you depended on are no longer there to make you feel confident. Connecting back to Matt Fried, he says; even when people leave people expect to get this feeling of okay ness from an external source. It seems as through, trying to be cool is looking for confidence from other people because we are so insecure with ourselves we have to convince ourselves we are "cool" from what other people say and as a response to the absurd, trying to make sense of things instead of our own opinions and realities, but because external sources are not always reliable, they do not last forever, and absurdities exist we often find ourselves feeling "empty" when the people we depend on to make us feel better about ourselves are not there anymore or when things simply do not make sense.
Works Cited:
"Albert Camus." Wikipedia. 13 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009..
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Second Vintage International Edition, 1980. Print.
"Emptiness." Wikipedia. 29 Nov 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009..
"Existentialism." Wikipedia. 17 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009..
Fried, Matt. "Psychology of Cool." Social Studies Class. 127 e 22nd, New York. 08 Dec 2009. Lecture.
"In his essays Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality...While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless)"
We feel emptiness because we are always looking for happiness so we are disappointed when we are faced with unhappiness. "Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalised boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany depression, loneliness, [or] despair. " As Matt Fried says, humans are built with the ability to feel negative emotions as well as positive ones. We can't expect other people to determine our emotions when we give them the power to decide whether we are "cool," or not. Our insecurities lead us to wonder if we are accepted by others. Fried says we should find this happiness from within ourselves because we can rely on ourselves. Relating to Camus, we need to accept the dualisms in our lives but not delude ourselves with the paradoxes of cool.
Also relating to Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man, the main character goes through a similar routine of cool and emptiness. He joins a brotherhood and feels a sense of importance, being "Introduced as a kind of hero"(358) that people care about. Over time he realizes that they were only using him as a tool, "a material, a natural resource to be used."(508) for their group and he says "I felt suddenly empty...Up to now I had felt a wholeness...wholeness that guaranteed that it would change the course of history."(406). He thought he would be a significant figure in the world filling/covering up his emptiness but lost that cover up over time. The connection between emptiness and cool in this case is being cool does not last for as long as you would want it to because things change and people move on (is that absurd? or necessary?) and this leaves you with a feeling of emptiness.
The people you depended on are no longer there to make you feel confident. Connecting back to Matt Fried, he says; even when people leave people expect to get this feeling of okay ness from an external source. It seems as through, trying to be cool is looking for confidence from other people because we are so insecure with ourselves we have to convince ourselves we are "cool" from what other people say and as a response to the absurd, trying to make sense of things instead of our own opinions and realities, but because external sources are not always reliable, they do not last forever, and absurdities exist we often find ourselves feeling "empty" when the people we depend on to make us feel better about ourselves are not there anymore or when things simply do not make sense.
Works Cited:
"Albert Camus." Wikipedia. 13 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Second Vintage International Edition, 1980. Print.
"Emptiness." Wikipedia. 29 Nov 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
"Existentialism." Wikipedia. 17 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
Fried, Matt. "Psychology of Cool." Social Studies Class. 127 e 22nd, New York. 08 Dec 2009. Lecture.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
29- Merchants of Cool
Based on Friedman's lecture on the Psychology of Cool (12/8/09), giving others the power to determine your coolness makes you vulnerable, because teens are influenced by the idea of being cool, the vast majority of teens are insecure. Corporate companies take advantage of this and use it as a technique to target teenagers, "Teens are like Africa" (Merchants of Cool) they colonize our consciousness. We all want to be valued so the marketing companies use that and flatter the chosen audience (teens) to get their attention.
The film, Merchants of Cool, make me believe that the corporations are evil for manipulating teens because they are vulnerable. They take advantage of teens as an easy target for their profits. Capitalists find the easiest way to make the most profit, even if that means creating these roles and norms for teenagers and influencing them to be cool highly affecting their lives. But in addition to me being manipulated by advertisements, I am being manipulated by this film (another form of media). I am simply thinking what corporate media wants me to think even though those ideas are contradictory.
I think that because media holds such a big role in our lifestyles, the average teen in 2001 sees 3000 advertisements a day, we don't know what else to rely on. The media has become our main source for things, movies, television, advertisements, and second hand media from other people. I do think that advertisements for all ages should be limited, not necessarily banned but limited. For all ages I would believe that adults can be manipulated by the media as well as teenagers, probably not as easliy, but nonetheless manipulated, my parents still buy new digital items even when we do not really need them. I beleive that if we were not so influenced by ads we would find more reliable sources to be influenced by such as actual human beings who are not trying to get you to buy something (hopefully).
I think it should be limited and not banned because ads are in a cycle of capitalism and without ads that would mean people working with the ads would be out of jobs (I'm sure not all of them are evil, some of them are probably just stuck in that job), lots of actors other companies would be out or work, increasing poverty in the U.S. It would be harder to buy the things we need (food, water, etc) because we would have to figure out where to get what we need. I don't know if the US can handle not being told what to do all the time. We are so used to being tools we don't know what it is like to not be one.
The film, Merchants of Cool, make me believe that the corporations are evil for manipulating teens because they are vulnerable. They take advantage of teens as an easy target for their profits. Capitalists find the easiest way to make the most profit, even if that means creating these roles and norms for teenagers and influencing them to be cool highly affecting their lives. But in addition to me being manipulated by advertisements, I am being manipulated by this film (another form of media). I am simply thinking what corporate media wants me to think even though those ideas are contradictory.
I think that because media holds such a big role in our lifestyles, the average teen in 2001 sees 3000 advertisements a day, we don't know what else to rely on. The media has become our main source for things, movies, television, advertisements, and second hand media from other people. I do think that advertisements for all ages should be limited, not necessarily banned but limited. For all ages I would believe that adults can be manipulated by the media as well as teenagers, probably not as easliy, but nonetheless manipulated, my parents still buy new digital items even when we do not really need them. I beleive that if we were not so influenced by ads we would find more reliable sources to be influenced by such as actual human beings who are not trying to get you to buy something (hopefully).
I think it should be limited and not banned because ads are in a cycle of capitalism and without ads that would mean people working with the ads would be out of jobs (I'm sure not all of them are evil, some of them are probably just stuck in that job), lots of actors other companies would be out or work, increasing poverty in the U.S. It would be harder to buy the things we need (food, water, etc) because we would have to figure out where to get what we need. I don't know if the US can handle not being told what to do all the time. We are so used to being tools we don't know what it is like to not be one.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Informal Research 28
Cool From Wikipedia:
This website talks about the definition of cool, its history, and how the definition of "cool" changes between countries and their cultures. The article then talks about the distinctions within the ideas of cool. An excerpt from the show, The Simpsons, is used as an example to show these distinctions.
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring,
right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried
everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to
be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?
It seems as though if you admit you're cool you are uncool because being cool is not caring. But if you're uncool, admitting that is cool--the song can be so lame that it's cool. But then how can you know if you're cool without asking and sounding like you're trying too hard? We all seem like we try so hard, trying different tactics of attaining coolness to get others to like you. Is your own perspective of yourself enough? Apparently not because we are always looking for approval of others. Why do trust other peoples' judgements of ourselves? My guess it is because we are so insecure with ourselves, we are so easy to trust what other people say about us.
The Breakfast Club:
In the movie The Breakfast Club, all of the general stereotypes are stuck in detention together, each of them playing the role that they fit into, "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal...". They eventually become friends with each other despite the expectations of not associating with people outside of their social group.
This film showed the dominant views of what is cool in a typical high school, the jock, the princess, and the rebel, and what is uncool, the geek and the basket case. Each character fulfilled their archetype. In the beginning, "the princess," "the criminal" and "the athlete" think they are better than the others, "the brain" obediently sitting at his desk and "the basket case" in the back kind of just doing whatever she wants. Throughout the movie they escape these norms by admitting that they don't fit them.
The Brain:
I can't have an F, I can't have it
and I know my parents can't have it!
Even if I aced the rest of the
semester, I'm still only a B. And
everything's ruined for me!
The Princess:
I hate having to go
along with everything my friends say!...
You know, you just don't understand
the pressure that they can put on
you!
The Athlete:
it's all because of me and
my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him!...
"Andrew, you've got to be number one! I
won't tolerate any losers in this
family... Win. Win! WIN!!!"...
sometimes, I wish... he
could forget all about me...
The Basket Case:
My home life is un...satisfying...
[my parents] ignore me...
The Criminal:
(as his father)
Stupid, worthless, no good, God
damned, freeloading, son of a bitch,
retarded, bigmouth, know it all,
asshole, jerk!
(as his mother)
You forgot ugly, lazy and
disrespectful.
They all come to the conclusion that,"we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Which I agree with. We all have problems and being "cool" or trying to be, is just a way of pretending that we are happy and avoiding/denying the fact that our lives are not perfect.
By the end of the movie the audience is feeling pretty satisfied as the cool and the uncool become friends. They get the briain to write the essay to the principal for all the them (I guess not everything changed) saying, "you're crazy to make [us write] an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal..." The audience ends up believing all five of the students are cool regarless of the norms (arguably) because they all shyed away from what they were expected to be. Which is going againts the grain and being authentic, supporting those general ideas of cool, but they still fit themselves under their given lables.
How To Be Cool:
This website has ten tips of how to be cool, basically saying generally everything that we have talked about. Number one is not caring what others think. Being indifferent, but still having a general view of how others percieve you. You have to be confident, be different, say what you think, laugh at yourself. Individualism is also an important aspect, be relaxed, and be social without coming on to strong to other people. There seems to be many regulations in being cool.
When comparing this website to my interview with the hair stylists', their definition was much simpler, just be easy to get along with and that is it. But it seems as though there is more to it than just being easygoing, With regard to physical appearance, beware of bad breath, body odor, etc. "In terms of body language, stand/sit up straight, look and feel confident, smile generously, do not stare, etc." It seems like a lot to think about.
You always see in the movies or shows when the main character tries to make the transformation into someone who is cooler than they think they originally are. The general formula for this type of story is that they try to be cool, they fail because they are too subconscious about being cool. Then in the end someone is there to tell them, or they figure out on their own, that being themself is what makes you cool and what makes you unique. But unique isnt always "cool", The basket case in The Breakfast Club is someone you can call unique but she was not considered cool. And in one of my interviews, a girl is considerd cool but she was not unique. When is unique cool and when isnt it?
Works Cited:
Hughes, John. "The Breakfast Club." awesomefilm.com. 1985. WDBG@AOL.COM, Web. 7 Dec 2009..
"Theories of cool." wikipedia.org. 2000. Web. 7 Dec 2009..
"How To Be Cool ." iloveindia.com. Web. 7 Dec 2009..
This website talks about the definition of cool, its history, and how the definition of "cool" changes between countries and their cultures. The article then talks about the distinctions within the ideas of cool. An excerpt from the show, The Simpsons, is used as an example to show these distinctions.
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring,
right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried
everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to
be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?
It seems as though if you admit you're cool you are uncool because being cool is not caring. But if you're uncool, admitting that is cool--the song can be so lame that it's cool. But then how can you know if you're cool without asking and sounding like you're trying too hard? We all seem like we try so hard, trying different tactics of attaining coolness to get others to like you. Is your own perspective of yourself enough? Apparently not because we are always looking for approval of others. Why do trust other peoples' judgements of ourselves? My guess it is because we are so insecure with ourselves, we are so easy to trust what other people say about us.
The Breakfast Club:
In the movie The Breakfast Club, all of the general stereotypes are stuck in detention together, each of them playing the role that they fit into, "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal...". They eventually become friends with each other despite the expectations of not associating with people outside of their social group.
This film showed the dominant views of what is cool in a typical high school, the jock, the princess, and the rebel, and what is uncool, the geek and the basket case. Each character fulfilled their archetype. In the beginning, "the princess," "the criminal" and "the athlete" think they are better than the others, "the brain" obediently sitting at his desk and "the basket case" in the back kind of just doing whatever she wants. Throughout the movie they escape these norms by admitting that they don't fit them.
The Brain:
I can't have an F, I can't have it
and I know my parents can't have it!
Even if I aced the rest of the
semester, I'm still only a B. And
everything's ruined for me!
The Princess:
I hate having to go
along with everything my friends say!...
You know, you just don't understand
the pressure that they can put on
you!
The Athlete:
it's all because of me and
my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him!...
"Andrew, you've got to be number one! I
won't tolerate any losers in this
family... Win. Win! WIN!!!"...
sometimes, I wish... he
could forget all about me...
The Basket Case:
My home life is un...satisfying...
[my parents] ignore me...
The Criminal:
(as his father)
Stupid, worthless, no good, God
damned, freeloading, son of a bitch,
retarded, bigmouth, know it all,
asshole, jerk!
(as his mother)
You forgot ugly, lazy and
disrespectful.
They all come to the conclusion that,"we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Which I agree with. We all have problems and being "cool" or trying to be, is just a way of pretending that we are happy and avoiding/denying the fact that our lives are not perfect.
By the end of the movie the audience is feeling pretty satisfied as the cool and the uncool become friends. They get the briain to write the essay to the principal for all the them (I guess not everything changed) saying, "you're crazy to make [us write] an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal..." The audience ends up believing all five of the students are cool regarless of the norms (arguably) because they all shyed away from what they were expected to be. Which is going againts the grain and being authentic, supporting those general ideas of cool, but they still fit themselves under their given lables.
How To Be Cool:
This website has ten tips of how to be cool, basically saying generally everything that we have talked about. Number one is not caring what others think. Being indifferent, but still having a general view of how others percieve you. You have to be confident, be different, say what you think, laugh at yourself. Individualism is also an important aspect, be relaxed, and be social without coming on to strong to other people. There seems to be many regulations in being cool.
When comparing this website to my interview with the hair stylists', their definition was much simpler, just be easy to get along with and that is it. But it seems as though there is more to it than just being easygoing, With regard to physical appearance, beware of bad breath, body odor, etc. "In terms of body language, stand/sit up straight, look and feel confident, smile generously, do not stare, etc." It seems like a lot to think about.
You always see in the movies or shows when the main character tries to make the transformation into someone who is cooler than they think they originally are. The general formula for this type of story is that they try to be cool, they fail because they are too subconscious about being cool. Then in the end someone is there to tell them, or they figure out on their own, that being themself is what makes you cool and what makes you unique. But unique isnt always "cool", The basket case in The Breakfast Club is someone you can call unique but she was not considered cool. And in one of my interviews, a girl is considerd cool but she was not unique. When is unique cool and when isnt it?
Works Cited:
Hughes, John. "The Breakfast Club." awesomefilm.com. 1985. WDBG@AOL.COM, Web. 7 Dec 2009.
"Theories of cool." wikipedia.org. 2000. Web. 7 Dec 2009.
"How To Be Cool ." iloveindia.com. Web. 7 Dec 2009.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
27 Informal Research and Interviews
Street Interviews:
Esther and I leave the building but we don't know which way to go, John Li and Andy find us and we start to walk together in the direction of the hardware store. Andy and John walk ahead and a guy smoking outside a hair salon asks us, "you asking about 'cool'?, go ask her (he points to an asian lady inside the salon), she's cool" So we walk inside and ask the lady what she thinks is cool. she says someone who is easy to get along with who is openminded, and easygoing whether they are rich or not. Esther then asks her if she thinks she is cool. The asian lady says "I try my best to be cool" someone cool knows who they are they have to know how to "act it". She then got into how sometimes good people are not cool because they are not recognized but that doesn't mean that they are not good people.
She then calls over her co-worker, a lady with white spikey hair and asks her what she thinkgs is cool she paused to think and said "chill" calm and relaxed, not easily upset. She then says "we look cool, we're cool" gesturing to herself and the asian lady. She also says that there are lots of different opinions of what "cool."
Then she calls over another co-worker, a male hispanic looking guy, and asks he what he thinks is cool, he says "GQ is cool!" me and Esther didn't realize but they explained that GQ is his name, he thinks he is cool. He then said "Someone you can get along" and someone with a cool haircut (referring to the hair salon we were in). All three came down to the same answer that someone cool is someone you can get along with. I can agree with that but now that I think of it, it is a very vague answer. What makes them easy to get along with and how do you determine that?
After we left the hair place, we didnt really know where to go next. Esther said I had to pick since she started asking the asian lady. I decided we'd walk into duane reade and talk to one of the workers because they can't walk away from us. We were lucky because the lady at the cashier was't doing anything so I asked her, What do you think is cool. She thought for a minute and simply said "me" she seemed pretty confident but confused so she said "I dont really know, I don't use that term very much" so I asked, what do you think makes you cool? and she said that a lot of people like her, she had lots of friends and she had a funny personality. I asked her If she tried to be, she said "I don't try, I'm just me." Then Esther asked her how if she acted differently around her friends and her family, she responded, "No I act the same," I decided I didn't want to bother her anymore so the interview ended there. It seemed like the general idea of cool is someone easy to get along with, someone funny and well liked by a lot of people, and someone who knows who they are.
Family Interview:
I asked the first "cool" relative how she lives her life. She said that if she wants things she goes for it. Does what she can while shes young so she can learn from her mistakes now rather than later. From this I got that "cool" is doing your own thing and living your life in the moment.
I then asked a second "cool" relative what he thought was cool. He said "The Fonz, he's so cool he's like 'aye', he wears a leather jacket, and he doesn't really care." Going back to the indifferent and badass rebel coolness. Then he says "Beans are cool" referring to the phrase 'cool beans' trying to be cool while referring to that cool phrase. So I asked him if he thought he was cool, he said "Yes I model myself after the Fonz and I eat beans," then I responded, "But then you're not original" he said that was true and, "That's what makes beans and the Fonz so cool, they do their own thing." So this idea of unauthenticity is still not cool but its only not cool until they realize they are unoriginal. As long as they can go on believing they are cool and original, they are confident they are cool.
It seems as though unoriginality for cool people is almost taboo because people don't want to throw off their coolness. You probably won't hear someone question a celebrity's coolness because they idolized someone else. People seem so intimidated by cool people they don't want to question the 'authority' they think they have. For example, when Fall Out Boy the cool edgy alternative rock band did a cover of Beat it by Michael Jackson the classic king of pop. That cover was still cool, I'm pretty sure it made the top 10 on itunes for a while. Because Fall Out Boy already had status, they were still cool for doing that song even though they were clearly copying off of Michael Jackson and they got even more status for doing that song. If someone with low status in a typical high school copied off of someone else's style, they would be considered a poser or a fake and that would give them stigma.
Esther and I leave the building but we don't know which way to go, John Li and Andy find us and we start to walk together in the direction of the hardware store. Andy and John walk ahead and a guy smoking outside a hair salon asks us, "you asking about 'cool'?, go ask her (he points to an asian lady inside the salon), she's cool" So we walk inside and ask the lady what she thinks is cool. she says someone who is easy to get along with who is openminded, and easygoing whether they are rich or not. Esther then asks her if she thinks she is cool. The asian lady says "I try my best to be cool" someone cool knows who they are they have to know how to "act it". She then got into how sometimes good people are not cool because they are not recognized but that doesn't mean that they are not good people.
She then calls over her co-worker, a lady with white spikey hair and asks her what she thinkgs is cool she paused to think and said "chill" calm and relaxed, not easily upset. She then says "we look cool, we're cool" gesturing to herself and the asian lady. She also says that there are lots of different opinions of what "cool."
Then she calls over another co-worker, a male hispanic looking guy, and asks he what he thinks is cool, he says "GQ is cool!" me and Esther didn't realize but they explained that GQ is his name, he thinks he is cool. He then said "Someone you can get along" and someone with a cool haircut (referring to the hair salon we were in). All three came down to the same answer that someone cool is someone you can get along with. I can agree with that but now that I think of it, it is a very vague answer. What makes them easy to get along with and how do you determine that?
After we left the hair place, we didnt really know where to go next. Esther said I had to pick since she started asking the asian lady. I decided we'd walk into duane reade and talk to one of the workers because they can't walk away from us. We were lucky because the lady at the cashier was't doing anything so I asked her, What do you think is cool. She thought for a minute and simply said "me" she seemed pretty confident but confused so she said "I dont really know, I don't use that term very much" so I asked, what do you think makes you cool? and she said that a lot of people like her, she had lots of friends and she had a funny personality. I asked her If she tried to be, she said "I don't try, I'm just me." Then Esther asked her how if she acted differently around her friends and her family, she responded, "No I act the same," I decided I didn't want to bother her anymore so the interview ended there. It seemed like the general idea of cool is someone easy to get along with, someone funny and well liked by a lot of people, and someone who knows who they are.
Family Interview:
I asked the first "cool" relative how she lives her life. She said that if she wants things she goes for it. Does what she can while shes young so she can learn from her mistakes now rather than later. From this I got that "cool" is doing your own thing and living your life in the moment.
I then asked a second "cool" relative what he thought was cool. He said "The Fonz, he's so cool he's like 'aye', he wears a leather jacket, and he doesn't really care." Going back to the indifferent and badass rebel coolness. Then he says "Beans are cool" referring to the phrase 'cool beans' trying to be cool while referring to that cool phrase. So I asked him if he thought he was cool, he said "Yes I model myself after the Fonz and I eat beans," then I responded, "But then you're not original" he said that was true and, "That's what makes beans and the Fonz so cool, they do their own thing." So this idea of unauthenticity is still not cool but its only not cool until they realize they are unoriginal. As long as they can go on believing they are cool and original, they are confident they are cool.
It seems as though unoriginality for cool people is almost taboo because people don't want to throw off their coolness. You probably won't hear someone question a celebrity's coolness because they idolized someone else. People seem so intimidated by cool people they don't want to question the 'authority' they think they have. For example, when Fall Out Boy the cool edgy alternative rock band did a cover of Beat it by Michael Jackson the classic king of pop. That cover was still cool, I'm pretty sure it made the top 10 on itunes for a while. Because Fall Out Boy already had status, they were still cool for doing that song even though they were clearly copying off of Michael Jackson and they got even more status for doing that song. If someone with low status in a typical high school copied off of someone else's style, they would be considered a poser or a fake and that would give them stigma.
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