HW 23

Cool. Im not sure if cool can be defined. Cool is constantly changing and for many people is very different. I think that cool can be categorized into two different types: 1. What's cool in pop culture or the mainstream 2. What is cool to you as an individual.

What is cool in pop culture/mainstream?
The definition of col in pop culture/mainstream is defined by fads ad constantly changes. Celebrities constantly changes styles and activities and as a result many people follow them and constantly change with them. It is kind of like an x to y relationship as x(actors, musicians, etc.) changes they y(people who follow mainstream culture) changes.

It seems to me that main times being cool according to pop culture means showing off your money or at least pretending to have a lot of money. It is not uncommon in new york to see someone who lives in a projects or bad neighborhood wearing n extremely expensive label. The idea of being cool teaches people to want to fit in and conform with what celebrities are doing and with what everyone else is doing. In many ways it takes someone's or part of someone's personality and individuality away from them. Everyone is affected by pop culture in different ways some times to the extreme and some times not so much. This idea of being cool and fitting in is one of the main ways we are influenced too buy so much. It is one of the essentials to consumerism. It keeps us wanting more and many times it keeps us poor. People work and spend their hard earned money on things that they eventually wont use in a matter of months. Its pretty sad...

Going deeper in to the mainstream definition of cool the question of why people do this comes up. Taking a step back and really looking at it it's quite idiotic, but we have become accustomed to this way of life that we hardly take time to think about it. Why do we allow ourselves to be influenced so heavily to buy new version of ipods that essentially do the same thing, or buy new clothes that we may not even like. What is the point? I think there are two main steps in breaking this down(I'm sure I will think of more later on.) The first part is causing insecurities within people, making them feel as if they are not good enough or need to change them selves to be accepted. The second part is providing the things that they can buy to fit someone else's standards. It's pretty sick. Many people are buying clothes and changing their appearance to fit other people standards. People feel as though they are not good enough so they spend massive amounts of money covering themselves up in an artificial personality and sometimes appearance. So many people especially teens don't feel as though they can express themselves in a way that is true to them. They don't feel that they can share the things that they like with others because it is not something that everybody likes. "Cool" pop culture is all about fitting someone else's standards and they get people to do this by telling them that if they buy certain things they will stand out when in reality there are simply fitting in. Cool is artificial in pop culture.

2. Cool in terms of the individual

This varies much more than the first one. This is unique for every person. It's what you really like what you want to do, what you want to say, or how you want to dress. Cool to the individual is what they like about others what they like about themselves. However, everyones perception of cool is affected by pop culture; sometimes in minor ways sometimes in major ways. People who stray from the norm always have other people who are just like them. It's impossible to be completely original and every gets their ideas of cool from other people and from mainstream culture in some ways.

It is impossible for some one to be completely unaffected by pop culture because we grow up with pop culture all around us. On t.v, on the computer everything around us is somewhat associated with pop culture and therefore, even if it is sub-consciously we are all affected by pop culture.