Hw 35: Cool Paper Rough Draft

Introduction

The word "Cool" is an odd word that everyone uses but nobody defines. It can be used to express approval towards a situation, as in "okay, thats cool" or towards a person or object its hard to label what kind of positive reaction "cool" fits the best. No one knows the exact meaning behind the word because it's such a widely used term that there are hundreds of definitions for it. The only common factor between each definition is the idea of approval, people who are cool are accepted and feel good about themselves.

Social Cool

The majority of Americans see Cool as a fashion contest. The way people dress defines how cool they are, not only do people, mostly teens, have to wear the right clothes, they have to wear them at the right time. Not only do they have to wear the right clothes at the right time, but also in the right group. For example a kid wearing expensive clothes with name-brand tags and logos will be accepted by most teens, but that same teen won't be accepted by the "alternative hippy" crowd. Cool is different to different people, everyone has their own standards for how people should dress, act and look to be cool.

What's Cool is partly defined by corporations, some people are dedicated enough to brand names to find anything that brand sells to be cool. People then associate things about those products to be so certain "traits" become cool by association. Certain companies have focus groups that find out what teens find cool and use that information to create new products that teens will find cool.

Psychological Cool

People try to be "Cool" to feel a sense of value. We need to feel valued to have self esteem and function well as human beings. Instead of working hard at a skill and contributing to society, which would actually be valuable, most people try to look cool and assume the "cool pose" to be liked. However subconsciously we perceive "like" and "value" to mean the same thing which isn't always the case. Being stylish and trendy will get you liked but there's no real value to someone who doesn't have any skills or real qualities as a person.

Mythic Cool

Being "Cool" or accepted relies on filling a role in someone's life. This role is a mythic role, to be accepted the person must fill the role of "side-kick" or "mentor" etc. As social creatures we try to surround ourselves with people who will benefit us in life, this can happen consciously or subconsciously. The way we become accepted is by tailoring our characters to fit the expectations of the people around us, and there are different expectations we have to meet to assume different roles, the standards one has to meet to be someone's mentor are much different than the standards they have to meet.

Conclusion

For people to truly be happy they have to be accepted and feel valued. Instead of following interchangeable fads people should develop the character they made for themselves. We're all assuming roles that we've made so we should take advantage of the fact that we're assuming roles and change who we are. If we can come to terms with the fact that we're playing roles we can change our role to fit who we want to be, and create characters that are valuable and have skills and interests that are interesting instead of just wearing the newest and coolest clothes.