I can't find the web site i found this on, it was written by a former high school student on his theory of "cool" and his big revelation he finally came to at the end of his High School career. This was the most valuable quote from the whole paper, all the other points were repetition of what we already discussed.
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=338
This was article written by Jeff Rice entitled What is Cool? Notes on Intellectualism, Popular Culture, and Writing. He raises the same points we have but words them better and backs them up with well thought out examples.
He refers to an advertising section that was in Wired magazine called "The Phenomena of being cool" where it begins with the statement "Attempting to capture cool is a trap." I instantly think this means that if you not initially cool on your own, aspiring to become it by figuring out what is commonly seen as cool and mimicking it would turn you into a wanabee poser which is actually the most uncool quality in the book. Trying to hard is universally seen as lame, no one giver you credit for effort when trying to fit in with a certain crowd. It seems like trying to trap cool and hold on to it to analyze later only makes you seem like you care too much, yet another uncool attribute.
"Cool became remote, the opposite of mass. It morphed into the gadget, car, person, or party available to few but coveted by many."
Cool is like a valuable luxury, desired by many but owned by few. If everyone was considered cool then such a title would lose its value and less people would feel special about being cool. Its all about status, being a higher ranking then another, seen as the star in multiple people's movies. Not everyone is corrupted with such a glim outlook, and its more easily the people who don't care about it that succeed at actually achieving it.
On the other hand, this quote sums up easily how cool is a limited supply to be distributed only to the ones who invest the most money, time to appearance and networking to get into the right crowds. Now that I think about it, there are probably those who do put a lot of effort into being cool, and while their effort may pay off others may just not cut it.
As I continued my researched I realized there are various websites that can help those in need of becoming cool in short simple steps.
I got this from AskMen.com: http://www.askmen.com/money/how_to_250/252_how_to.html
It made me laugh when I first read it because it gave about 15 "simple ways" of transforming your self into a considerably cool person, arguably though I would say into a tool. The rules are juvenile and one of them even say trying too hard to be cool is notably uncool, and yet that's exactly what the site is constructing desperate internet nerds to do.
From a website SoSuave.com the author lists the fundamental aspects of cool that any man who wants to get a women needs to live by. It is one of many dating sites that instruct men how to act, dress and talk. To be able to follow these rules to the core where a person would act this way all the time seems ABSURD. It makes me wonder what it says about women of this society, if we could possibly be tricked into beleiving all men were as gunine as we thought or if there is really a good website behind the charm.
So suave says:
THE DEFINITION OF COOL
- Being independent
- Being indifferent
- Being funny
- Being socially adjusted
http://www.mindfields.org.uk/blog/?p=140 - How to be Cool and Attractive , written in 2007
“Do you know the old story about the Sun and the North Wind having a bet about which one of them could get some guy to take his coat off? Well, the North Wind had a go and blew his hardest, but the guy just clung to his coat with all his strength. But all the Sun had to do was shine and the guy took off his coat because he was too hot."
All these sites about how to be cool make me wonder how many successful cases there have been. Its been elaborated in class that there are two types of people, those who care about being cool and those who don't. Its been established that some of those people who don't care end up being inevitably considered cool anyways, while others have to work to keep such a status, perhaps by investing in trendy clothes, expensive work out plans and flashy gadgets. But is it possible that some people are so superficial, so shallow that they have to resort to changing their day to day way of life just to fit in with a larger crowd? Is it that much more important to be valued by the majority as opposed to a smaller more meaningful selective others?
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