Hw 37 essay

Cool is inevitably a part of everyone’s life whether we like it or not. It's a major piece of the foundation for our society. We are helplessly slaves of cool. We depend on it, yearn for it, and praise it. In today’s society peoples lives revolve around cool. It is a determining factor for whom and what we will be in the future, yet many people ignore the fact that they constantly seek coolness. People will go to extreme lengths to be cool and conform to certain ideas of cool. People have learned to listen to the ones considered cool and have learned to play their roles. It is quite obvious that so many people rely on cool that need cool to have meaning in their lives. Where does this constant need for cool come from? Why have we become so reliant on ideas of what someone should be? Why is it that we try so hard to fit in to certain molds? Cool is an addiction that society seems incapable of stopping. Our addiction from cool comes from many different places and the source does not lie in one place. However there are a few key reasons we are always in a desperate search for cool. The human need for cool derives from personal needs for connection with other human beings, options society presents to us, our surroundings, and a need for sense of importance and meaning.

Connection is an essential part of life. From birth we are in need of connection. We seek connection from our families, friends, co-workers, and everyone else around us. A large majority of our daily actions are done for the approval of others. The things we wear, the way we act, the things we like are all different ways we try to connect to other people. When a child is young there usually a connection with the parent and the child is loved and is given attention for simply being alive. However, as this kid begins to grow up and more people enter their life they try to find new ways to get attention and connect with people. To do so they try to impress them and seem important to them. We go to great lengths and put ourselves through extreme circumstances to connect with others. We are willing to pierce our skin and have tattoos drawn on our skin. We are willing to dye our hair, burn our hair, wear fake hair just to impress and connect with others. We even have surgery to change our appearance so that we can feel more accepted and connected to others. Although this is something that many people would deny it is quite obvious that no matter how original you try to be you are conforming to certain group and a certain image and we try our best to fit in to these images.

A need for connection is not a negative thing and should not be looked at negatively. However, the things people have resorted to doing to fulfill their need of connection is something that we should be ashamed of. We are savages when it comes to seeking cool. We contradict all the things we say we believe in. Dignity, pride and many other "American" values are thrown out the window in the quest for cool, yet somehow we still convince ourselves of our coolness. We practice our cool so much we actually believe we are what we are pretend to be, except in the end we are still pretending to fit a certain character. The choice of cool as one of the primary coping mechanism for connection is not necessarily the fault of the individual. We have grown up in a society which values competition, individualism, and the idea of cool. We grow up wanting to be the best and wanting to stand out yet still wanting to fit in and connect with everyone around us or our specific preference of people we choose to connect to.

Although our need for connection drives us to find ways we are presented with a way by society, we are presented with cool. We are taught cool will attract people to us, and that cool will make us important. We are taught that cool is a sense of confidence and that once we obtain cool the rest of our social needs will fall in to place and be fulfilled. We idolize cool and the people who portray cool; we turn our society in to a social hierarchy in which cool rules everything else. We have become slaves of cool. Cool is an idea that has helped society thrive socially and economically. However this comes at a price, the cost of cool is that many of the people who are poor will find cool as an outlet to their issues and remain poor. The people that are rich will remain rich and the two sides will hardly ever interact and mix. Cool not only has us trapped but is also pinning us down, yet it seems almost impossible to escape cool.

In our society we are taught to become independent individuals, who can care for themselves, provide for themselves, and handle their own lives. However the way we are raised and the way society function around us does not mix. As children we are loved for simply being alive. We are adored by our parents, family, and even strangers. However, as we grow older this starts to fade away and our need for a sense of connection and importance kicks in. We are then put out on our own to find the same admiration from people we had when we were younger. Yet when someone seeks attention they are frowned upon. We do not receive cool or the effects of cool for simply being alive as we once did. It seems that people do not value human life as much once a certain age is reached. There is a quick change from constant love to being out on your own and this is because that is the way we are taught to be. Our quick change from loved to individual leaves us in a bad position where we have little options and almost every time we turn to cool as our savior.

We have acknowledged a need for human connection and the outlet society gives us. However, there is one remaining major factor that plays into the cool dilemma. Importance, we need to feel important and meaningful or else it will seem as though our life is pointless. We have ambition and drive to accomplish things in our life. We strive to accomplish the societal norm of success and be looked at as an important successful person. We need this sense of something to look forward to feel as though we are occupied in our lives and are of meaning. This is another trap of cool. We do certain things in life to seem cool, not only does cool give us connection but it gives us power in our social hierarchy. The cooler we are the more connection we have and the more important we are to those around us. Cool is a replacement for us when we can’t find meaning in our lives. Many times people think they find meaning but it is simply a false meaning that society has presented to us. We have become inevitably trapped in cool due to the fact that cool is one of the main things our society and system revolves around.

Cool has consumed us due to our needs for human connection, options provided to us by society, and for a sense of importance/meaning. We have come to idolize cool without realizing it is hurting. We have been so wrapped up in following cool we have failed to notice it's true effects on us. Cool many times keeps us from having true connection with people, from doing the things we want to do from life, and from living our lives in the most complete way possible, whatever that may be for each individual person. To truly be free from the pressures of society and the expectations put on people the idea of cool must be abolished. If we fail to do so we will continue or chase of cool which we have noticed is the human parallel of a dog chasing its tail. We simply can't be the individuals we wish we were with cool. We are in need of different ways to go about our lives and cool is one thing that must go.