HW 31 - Exploring Methods of M,M,C,A, & Aggrandizing the Self

Part A:
For this assignment I have asked my friend about his method to mask, manipulate, costume, adorn, or/and aggrandize the self.

This is how the conversation generally went:

So what method do you use to customize yourself. In other words be unique to be cool?

IF a person wants to BECOME cool then that person is not cool, but being naturally cool then that is being cool. I do not think about any methods or tool to become cool. I just buy whatever I want to be myself. I think that is cool.

Do you consider yourself as unique than other people around you? Like you want to be yourself.

I don't really care about other people. I just consider myself. and I consider myself from my own past.

When you buy clothes and decide your own hairstyle do you think that is being yourself?

I hope so. I don't want to show my image to other people. I just want to satisfy myself. If I choose a shirt to wear today, and it is a cheerful shirt then I will be happy that day.

Who considers that shirt as cheerful?

Myself. If other people say "Aww your shirt sucks" I dont care. I think "maybe you are not cool" Because he cares about it and that is not cool. I think that bvecoming better and being myself is the same thing. Right now I'm satisfied but there are times when i see better clothes and I will choose those clothes for myself and become better than who I was. I hope

Without these better clothes what would you do?

I don't have to compare myself with any other person. I will fit into any level. Like, if I don't have money I cannot buy better clothes. For example, This is only a shirt, and usually i wear it like this, but sometimes i roll up the sleeves up to here. Or up to here. I can make this shirt look different in many ways. So i can also make myself look different at different places.

Overall I did not really know how to approach this person without making him feel he had to defend himself. Through out this conversation I provided different examples that would make everything easier to understand. I was very direct and obvious of what I was looking for, and i think that caused him to back up a little. Therefore, I do not think I obtained complete honest answers from him.

I wanted to connect this to the term "cool" as much as possible. Because becoming cool is ultimately the main goal of using different methods to not be who we truly are. This connects to my previous post because it brings the same idea of dissatisfaction and discomfort a person has of himself/herself. This assignment simply discusses the different methods people use to fill the emptiness that resides within ourselves. Going back to the previous conversation. I think that the method my friend uses it to costume himself at and place and any time. Therefore he can "fit" into any group and still be himself. Although he claimed not to care about being cool, which suggest he considered himself and naturally cool, he is still "trying" to be someone he is not. What i mean by saying this is that a person who is often changing himself in order to fix something to fulfill his own expectations in not himself at all.
My friend often communicated not to care about what others thought if him. That he only cares about his own opinion. More than selfish I think this is defensive talking. I assume that he did not want to accept that he did care about what others thought of him therefore having this "unique image" is so important to him. Admitting this would make him seem Uncool. It is funny how much people protect and conserve their own image.


Part B

What methods do I use?

When I think about this question I cannot help thinking of how much time I dedicate into becoming better. I study Japanese for at least 45 hours a week, I practice piano everyday, I work on community projects every month, etc. I think that these are the methods I use to Aggrandize myself. Although I do not really know with what purpose I do it because I was taught that it is the best decision to make. Saying that I do this in order to succeed seems a bit hypocritical. I do it because I am constructing a good image of myself. With this image I can feel better about myself and my hard work and in society's terms, enjoy life. I do not think about fitting in into any group but actually outstanding it. It is mentally exhausting thinking in such way, and without mentioning a waste of time. I actually know that I am no better than anyone else and that no one is better then me.

Accepting that I am physically decaying is not an easy thing to do. I aggrandize myself not because i enjoy it but because It distracts me from the good things I am missing out in life. And it also distracts me from thinking that I am dying everyday and all the work I am doing is for nothing. Seeing it this way I cannot help of thinking how stupid my decisions actually are. Become cool for a short period of time seems to be more worth it than going out there and living life. However, will I stop?
At this moment I do not think so. Even though I do not want to do it I still have so much homework to do before school starts. And I also have to carry on with my responsibilities and promises. I don't really have time to stop.

HW 29 - Merchants of Cool

*This episode can be found in the following site: *
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2330629461681402395#

This episode talked about how big companies influenced teenagers into purchasing their products and keeping their ratings high by subtly using the term "cool' to describe their own merchandise. Nevertheless, this episode opened a whole different set of questions focusing mainly on the effect these different economic strategies affected the youth.

Often the narrator stated that teens were the ones running society's idealism and money. There a number of different reasons why this happens. One of them is called "Guilt money", when parents say to their children "Here take my credit card and buy anything you want because I cannot spend time with you." Teens today have spent millions of dollars on merchandise that would make them cool, "such as new clothes, a new ipod, a new phone, etc. And this is because they do not have a sense of responsibility therefore by never working for their own money they do not appreciate it as much, and simply buy what they do not need because of it. In my eyes this makes teens the perfect costumer. They do not have to worry about supporting someone else economically, so all their money is invested into improving themselves and satisfying their wants. Which is just as teens are expected to be at this point of their lives, but with a different purpose, to become better professionally, but we often misunderstand this intentions.

So what happens to adults, are they not cool?
Do you stop being cool when you grow up?
Does this mean that being cool is simply a sign of immaturity and stupidity?

All this time I have been living under the idea that as teenagers we have a lot to learn about the world of the adults, and that our life experiences are nothing compared to older generations therefore we cannot communicate any type of wise advice to other people. I would also say that for some people teenagers are considered to be at a stage of stupidity. This could be due to the hormones or simply because of feelings of confusion at that stage of their lives. As a teenager myself I also feel pretty stupid at times, however i do think there are different levels of stupidity. It is very easy to get influenced as a teenager, and i think that companies such as MTV or Disney take this to their advantage. In this episode workers of different companies were interviewed with the purpose of learning what their purpose was. It was stated that they only wanted to give the young audience what they wanted. And in order to do so they would have to "get involved on what their culture is, understand where they are coming from, and have to think like they think" And most importantly that these companies weren't "selling the product. They were selling the fact that they understood the culture" In other words they were selling a lifestyle.



I think that as honest these intention even may be, I do not think is possible as an adult to understand the world of a teenager. Although that adult has already experienced the teenage life it is not the same. There are many different factor involved that make this generation gap too far apart. One of them is the massive consumption that current teenagers live with, and that alone makes adults unable to relate to them to a point that they have to run many different human researches to have a sense of what is happening in the mind of the youth. Also I think that adults often forget what it was to be a teenager. Some people would say that it is because they realized what teenagers are unable to see at that stage of their lives, which is the importance of responsibility and values. But as the narrator says, "was it any different when we were young? That the thing we call youth culture wasn't something that was just being sold to us. It was something that came from us in act of expression not just of consumption. Is that boundary been completely erased?" In other words, perhaps we are the creators of our own consumption, and it is not actually not consumption but simply our self expression, which reflect who we naturally are under society and what we want from it. Have adults forgotten about their own feelings during their teenage life? I think that it is not that the "boundary was completely erased" but that when people grow up they consider that there are more important things to worry about than just being cool. This also reminds me of my interview with a stranger. He stated that adults who consider themselves as cool or uncool are adults who have not grow up yet. Although I cannot say I entirely agree with this statement It does make sense in a way. Specially when companies use such a stupid term as a method to sell.

These economic strategies, understanding what the costumer wants, is one of the most effective ways of making a profit. Although I do not think is possible to understand one another in such way, companies do make a profit after running "people research". They influence teens on what is cool to make them purchase their products. However, if a company simply provides all these different things without the knowledge of what the audience wants they will fail. This was seen with MTV when its ratings began to considerably decrease. "MTV Had the humilty to realize that cool was not their birth right. That it belongs to kids and kids keep changing. If they wanted to stay cool they had to change right along with them." Therefore they began doing this people research and based their programs more on what the audience wanted. However, ironically enough the research shown in the video was to interview a teenager boy who was a fan of MTV program. His life style and behavior were pretty common. I would say that most outstanding aspect is that he had different suits for church each Sunday. And based on this and many other interviews shows such as Jackass were added to MTV. This made no sense, because using the life of the teenager boy interviewed during the research as an example, he did not do anything as close as what a mook did. This leads me to think that "all that research is not understand him as a person but as a costumer". Maybe the term people research should be actually named market research.



Also, sex and violence are two great ways to drag teens attentions. Shows such as Dawson's Greek or movies such as I know what you did last summer are some of the examples that kids are interested on, and this is because of the "prohibited scenes or situations" that are shown in these. Everyone is attracted and interested to what they cannot have, not only children. Indeed teenagers may be really interested in sex but they do not used to show it until it was shown on TV first. It is as if these shows were the key to make the children live more wildly.

The main argument of this episode however is the following:
"Is it media really reflecting the world of kids, or is it all the way around? Sell back to media what they sold to them"- In other words behaving like the media suggested to behave to be cool.
"It is a giant feed back loop. The media watched kids and then sells them an image of themselves." Then kids watch those images and immediately relate to them.
I think is more complicated then that. Although there were many researches conducted on people behavior, the interviewers saw their world in a very specific way. For adult to teenager, not from teenager to teenager, so the interviewer could not even relate to him, so how could he possibly understand him? I think that these teens were and still are misunderstood. Companies claim to know what we want and where we come from but I can confidently say they have no idea what they are selling. And even thought they don't they still sell it because they think we would understand it, and we don't. We simple live with it thinking that this is the world we live in, this is what is happening, we had no control over it, because it was handed to us by the hands of the adults.

To conclude this episode one of the man who was interviewed said,"Often there is a kind of official and systematic rebelliousness that is reflected in media products...Is part of the official rock video world view. Is part of the official advertising world view, that you are parents are creeps, teachers are nerds and idiots, authority figures are laughable. Nobody can really understand kids except the corporate sponsor. That huge authority has interestly enough merged as the sort of task of superhero of consumer culture. That's the coolest identity of all"




I somewhat disagree with this quote because what this man is doing is labeling everyone including the teenager's, the main audience, into many different categories, claiming that that is how teenagers see the world. As previously mentioned, How could he possibly know about it? He is a man that probably studied some psychology, but mostly merchandise and grew up in a very different generation. And i know this because the man is obviously over 35 years old. It is not fair to state that teenagers and what they want is understood and reflected as we want it to be. I cannot speak for everyone my age, but I say that personally I do not think I'm understood my media; at least not from this culture.

HW 30 - Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool

*While researching the term "Emptiness" I constantly found several Buddhist articles discussing this. This could because this religion has interesting and powerful insights explaining human emptiness or simply because no one else actually dedicates time thinking and theorizing about this. *

"Gotama Buddha said. when he was an old man, "This body like an old cart, held together by straps; this body only keeps going by makeshift repairs. The only way I can feel comfortable is to absorb my mind into signless concentration."

Based on this quote and based on the analysis of it in the article, I do think that even the Buddha are not satisfied with their own being. Often times we feel discomfort with ourselves so we feel the need of improvement. This improvement is based on many different factors, but all coming from what the majority think is "best". This would bring the recently studied concept of "Cool". If one is not satisfied and comfortable with himself then he would continue with these "makeshift repairs" as opposed to reflecting on his actions and desires and concentrate on accepting himself. By not doing so we only enforce the idea that we are indeed empty, and this is because we focus too much on the outside to realize what is on the inside. Unlike most Buddhist we adopt these different shapes and roles to identify ourselves and what we do. Without mentioning we believe that this is what we truly want and need (to become better!) and therefore spend so many hours working towards it. So then, Why are we still miserable if we are working towards what we WANT? I actually think that we do not care about ourselves at all. As long as our strong suit is Okay then the emptiness can remain, at least for now.

How does emptiness feel? In my own perspective emptiness is the feeling of awareness that your existence is not needed to anyone or anything. Although I cannot describe the discomfort of this feeling, I do know that it causes one person to become apathetic and have no satisfactory purpose in life. Others would argue that emptiness can be interpreted as a hole and as human beings we feel the need to feel this hole with whatever may be necessary to avoid feeling lonely.
And others would argue that it is simply one's perspective of experience. For example, as Thanissaro Bhikkhu said,

Emptiness is a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience. It adds nothing to and takes nothing away from the raw data of physical and mental events. You look at events in the mind and the senses with no thought of whether there's anything lying behind them.

This mode is called emptiness because it's empty of the presuppositions we usually add to experience to make sense of it: the stories and world-views we fashion to explain who we are and the world we live in. Although these stories and views have their uses, the Buddha found that some of the more abstract questions they raise — of our true identity and the reality of the world outside — pull attention away from a direct experience of how events influence one another in the immediate present. Thus they get in the way when we try to understand and solve the problem of suffering.

In other words this feeling of emptiness lies on our perspective of our world and people in it. It is possible that thinking differently about one self can lead this feeling to banish. This would lead to adopt other ways of being because we perceive our current self as unsatisfactory to a point that causes us to feel empty.

Whence this emptiness? This emptiness has many different sources. As discussed in class it could come from feeling isolated/misunderstood since early age or by the continuous lack of achievement. It is most likely that those who feel emptiness feel that something missing, but knowing what it is and how to get it is something most people do not know. Our culture suggests that in order to fill that emptiness we must live a fulfilled life. Because we focus too much on becoming something or someone "better" we do not think of the fact that one day we are going to die. Because of this we might not realize that all our hard work might be in futile, and this is because one day it will die with us and eventually be forgotten by everyone. However, thinking of this might actually bring more emptiness to our lives. What is the point if we are going to die anyways? Therefore I do not think that death or "the end" is actually the source of our emptiness, but the rejection and unacknowledgement of our being. I consider that either when our physicality or mentality is rejected then we begin to feel empty. It is ironic because nothing is actually being taken out from us to become in such way, but it is just a way to describe the feeling of loneliness.

Ultimately I think that the emptiness we feel is due to all the inauthenticity of our beings trying to become someone else or chase after some value to explain our existence and the rank of it, which would be how cool you are.

Having this in mind, how could we live without emptiness? In other words how could we live authentically?

I think that while living under some culture and idealism it is not possible to live authentically. And this is because we do not know who we truly are. As human beings we do not recognize ourselves as animals, which is what we truly are, therefore if we deny our identity from the very beginning how could we live truthfully? In other words I do not think we can live without this emptiness, just learn to live with it.

How does cool relate to our attempt to live in relation to this emptiness? As previously mentioned this emptiness is due to the inauthenticity in our lives. And at the same time we live our lives attempting to feel this emptiness with an absolute truth and label it reality only if we understand. Bikkhu Amaru explains his theory on the source of emptiness and examples of how the term of coolness might be interpreted. He said,

"when we talk about deathless, or the Absolute, of the goal, or the other shore, the mind goes a little bit blank trying to get a hold of it. Even in the way we speak about 'Nibbana'- 'Cooling down', 'Coolness' - we don't use any dramatic or emotive term, it's all a bit bland, non-descriptive. We talk about 'emptiness': the realisation of Absolute Truth, or of our true nature, the realisation of the non-conceptual pure mind, we describe as 'the ultimate emptiness'.

We use that kind of terminology not because there is nothing there, but because when the conceptual mind tries to grasp ultimate reality, since it cant be formed into a pattern, it finds that there is no THING there. It is like picking up a book in Chinese; if you can't read Chinese you are picking up a book in a foreign language. Here is a book, perhaps full of profound and wonderful teachings and pure truths, but you can't read the script, so it's meaningless. This is like the conceptual mind truing to grasp Ultimate Truth, the nature of the Godhead. The thinking mind says, 'Well what is it?" "How do you describe it?" "Where is it?" "Am I it?" "Am I not it?" It gropes for some kind of handle. In the same way, the thinking mind falls flat, as when trying to read a book in Chinese or Devanagari or whatever when it only knows English.

So because to the conceptual mind the experience of the Ultimate Truth has no form, it can be described as 'emptiness'. But the non-conceptual wisdom-mind, the realisation of Truth is like the Truth seeing itself. Pure Mind, aware of it's own nature.

Perhaps indeed only being fully aware of our own nature can make us realize that this emptiness is inauthentic. And that our need to know the absolute truth of our existence is perhaps nothing more than something to hold on to and understand it for the sake of our beings. We all need some type of explanation. Somewhere to belong. Otherwise we would feel incomplete and empty for not being a part of anything. Therefore as Amaru said, there is not actual term used to describe this emptiness. It is taken as a simple definition of our state as opposed to the right word to communicate our true feelings. In other words people adopt these different words, cool, empty, etc. without actually knowing if these are actually accurate to what they are or feel. People simple adapt to this vocabulary and use it to "describe" emotions. I do not think that it is honest to say that "I am empty" when a person is actually in reality never empty. Otherwise he would be dead.

Sources

Emptiness

Emptiness and Pure Awareness

HW 28 - Informal Research - Internet, Magazines, and TV Shows

Cultural sources of insight into Cool:

Kids' Health- Being cool
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=287&id=1478

This article addresses methods to follow in order to be cool in our society. For example, "How to look, or how to talk, or how to act" are some of the main topics discussed in this article. Although this article attempts to answer the main question of "What is cool" it avoids it by stating that one of the main kids' concern is being cool. Therefore these methods only target kids. However, It is easy to assume that these could actually apply to everyone and this is because knowing how to be cool since the very beginning "As kids" then it easy to move on from there, or as many would do begin basing his/her life as if their childhood was in such way.

The article encourages to "Talk about movies, TV shows, books, sport... You can soon find out what is popular with the other kids by listening to them, and then join in." which we are familiar with as cool for know whats "in". However these are just some of the ways to be cool, in this article a whole set of list with what to do and what not to do to be cool is provided. I would say this is the most interesting because it tells the reader that in order to fit in he/she would have to follow these different methods to be accepted. In other words change who that person is to become someone else. This list can be seen on the site above.

In this article Dr. Kate states that "fitting in with the group and having friends are very important for anyone. Sometimes movies give the idea that being cool is about looking trendy, pretending to be really laid back and being unkind to 'uncool' kids.
This is just movie stuff. In the real world, most kids want to feel good about themselves, have friends, be interested in the world around them, have fun and look after each other.
Now that's cool!" In other words the idea of cool that is shown in movies is actually not true, but the ability to have fun with others around you and and care after one another, is more likely to be what is cool in reality. I do agree that such characteristics would make someone cool, however, the representation of what is cool shown in movies is also very accurate to the society's general definition on what's cool. As seen in class and the interviews, people often said that someone cool, was someone relaxed or really "laid back". This being their first answer, how could we not consider this as realistic?

Although this article covers mostly all the general ideas of what is cool and what i not as a child, I find it somewhat ironic. This is because it is clear that the author of this article is not a kid sharing his/her thoughts on what is cool, but an older woman who in fact described herself as "definitely not cool", writing his son's friends' opinions on what is cool. I think it was interesting how she based all this method's on children's opinions, and molded them to her own. I am confident to state that the idea of what is cool that the children currently have comes corporate culture. People as adults also continue to learn from it and communicate its importance to their children, therefore it is not quite accurate to say that this is the children perspective on what is cool but a reflection of their parent's and teacher's ideas.

This simply shows once again that there is no complete and accurate definition of cool, therefore articles such as these will always be debated or disagreed upon.


What's Cool and What's Not- Red Eye
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye/2009/08/chicagoans-sound-off-on-whats-cool.html

A survey on "Cool/Not Cool" of approximately 600 Americans of the ages 18 to 34. Similarly to my own interviews the results to what is cool is: dress fashionably, be social, and be confident. As for what is considered "uncool" is pretty much the opposite of this characteristics. Such as, "Living under a rock" or living isolated from other people and what's "in". However, this article shows some of the answers that were not standard but actually insightful. Some of these were:

"It's probably more about what is popular, but in order to tie it into the brand we called it the "cool/uncool" survey," Occhipinti said.

"Basically, if you ask everyone their favorite ice cream, you will end up with vanilla being the most popular every time," said Gutsche, whose new book, "Exploiting Chaos," launches in September. "But that doesn't mean vanilla is cool."

"It's direct, it's to the point," Kritzer said. "No one's ignoring a text message."

Because it is a survey all different ideas of what is cool and what is not and even the significance of this word are shown. Also it is clear that some people are aware that "It also depends on how you define "cool." Take the exercise of declaring the coolest "Entourage" character (assuming, for the sake of argument, that "Entourage" is cool)".

This article also connects to famous T.V. shows such as True Blood to demonstrate what people think is cool and what is not. However, it is stated that regardless of how these characters may be portrayed whether they are cool or not depends on the audience's opinion. What I find most interesting however is the following sentence: "Sometimes, the best way to know what's cool is to know what's not. RedEye asked those in the know to weigh in on what's in, what's out, and what's, well, whatever. (In the case of "True Blood," we relied on our own expertise.)" This is because most people assume that knowing the negativity of any aspect is knowing everything about it. In other words once you learn the bad things you know assume that what is left is good. But this is not entirely true, specially when in reality there is no right and wrong. Being so there is no actual cool or uncool in reality.

Whats up for Today- New York Cool
http://www.newyorkcool.com/whatsup.html

Although this article does not clearly discuss what is cool it shows what is currently "in". It specifically addresses New York in December. Different movies, shows, celebrity's news, are mentioned here suggesting that in order to be up to date with society (In other words cool), one must know about these.

The prices of the tickets to watch these movies and shows are also provided in this site. Along with a small description and opinion on the movie. For example, Read Frank J. Avella's Film Column with his list of the thirteen best films of 2009 and the best films of the decade. Therefore, it must be watched.

This reminds me of the time we were discussing about the unreachable in class. Movie stars are often recognized as unreachable people similarly to a real star. And according to this site what is cool are the movies and shows that are currently being played. Movies portray the life of a character and that character is played by a movie star, which suggest that the life of that character and the character itself are cool, simple because the movie is categorized as such. After watching this movie people being adopting and developing new perspectives on whats cool and what isn't and communicate it to the world. Perhaps without movies people would be more honest about themselves and their lives.

This article, as previously mentioned, often mentions the ticket price of the movie or play. Which tells me in a way that it is indeed possible to sell and purchase "cool". I am starting to think that this term is mainly conserved with the purpose of merchandise as opposed to a way of describing ourselves and our lives. Perhaps when we adopt some one's image because is cool, we are advertising a company's merchandise. And this is because in my opinion there is no such thing as being unique in this society. Ideas come from other ideas which are based on different ideas. Nothing is original to begin with to claim that one's style is unique.

The Uncool Hunters- In search for the Anti global no-trends
http://www.theuncoolhunter.com/home.php?page=3

I have never encounter a site where the general idea of Uncool was so well shown before. I consider myself to be open minded when it comes down to the terms of cool and uncool. However, I could not help thinking "How lame..." some of these things were while i was going through it. The site does now state how uncool something is, It simply provides information about each picture and video shown. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the site only targets what is uncool, but it seems to me that their choices were somewhat global as opposed to their own, and this is because despite being an American site most of the pictures are international, specially from South America, and Mexico.

Some of these pictures were:

This is not an accurate drawing of Zonic, therefore it considered uncool. In other words, bad copies are not wanted.



I found this somewhat disturbing, and I do recognize it as uncool because of it. However, I can assume that someone did find it cool, and I can tell it is the one who made these. This suggests that what is recognized as uncool is decided by the majority.


*Since when is a bathroom with doors cool? Because evidently one without is uncool. This supports my thoughts on not everything uncool of one aspect make the rest of it cool. A bathroom with doors cannot be seen as cool just as "normal". Perhaps it is the unusual what makes us consider something as cool or uncool even, such as these photographs.

"Teleton is a unity Mexican Project that promotes the integration of the disabled and Jimmy “the spoiled of Mexico” was discovered. A sports commentator who works for Televisa was the person who made Jimmy’s dream come true and that is why this lad could sing in TV together with his idol Pedro Fernández. They sang the mega hit “Yo no fui”.
The effect was accurate. Our dreamer stole the heart of the viewers. After that, proposals and invitations came like rain and therefore a pink house was donated to him because he had always wanted one for his family.

It’s been a meteoric promotion that includes movies (he plays the role of an Aztec God in the film “Mictlan”) and he has also signed contracts with record companies.
When he is invited to different TV Shows he promotes his second album singing the hit “My carcachita”
So that’s why Jimmy, who is just 18 years old, becomes the example of “nothing can stop us” when all you have is willpower. Nothing."

This is an example of the information and author's comments on some of the pictures in this site. Many videos of this child singing are shown in the site. One of them is a music video and another one is a "thanks" video from the child. I think that this child is consider uncool for the simple fact that he is part of this site. The description seems to be a mockery to this child's life. Just to be clear I am not saying that his life itself is a mockery, but there is no need for the sarcasm. He is indeed handicapped, and because of it he became famous. I do not think Mexico consider es him uncool, they simply feel sorry for him. Me however, coming from the same culture, I do not feel sorry for him, and I do think he was made uncool. Perhaps it is because my definition of what cool has shifted, but regardless I do not think that people with disabilities should be used as entertainment with the purpose of making a profit. But then again that happens with non-disabled people as well.

In conclusion I do not think is fair to judge what is cool and what is not. People have many different ideas even though these came from other people, and if they want to express these in a way that they think unique, then it should not be criticized. Because of this criticism and our fear of it, our current art is not as well as it used to be 100 years ago and before that. We hide under the idea that everything has been made and taught so there is no need to bring something else to the table, but a copy or an update. Ultimately I think that we are all cool and uncool at the same time so there is no need to try being one or avoid being the other.

HW 27 - Informal Research - Interviews and Surveys

Family member Response:

1.

What does it mean to be "cool"?
I think that nobody should be cool. Is like they say "the beauty is in the eye of the beholder" Coolness depends on how people see it. There is no one complete definition of what is cool. Of course I do think that some people are cool but that's because they like the same things I do or because i like what they are wearing or doing.

How important do you think this is?
There should be a balance between people. like not everybody can be the same. There should be a balance when some people are more interested than others but that doesn't make the other people uncool. Like the popular people and the shy people, that doesn't mean the shy ones are uncool, they are just quiet and don't show how cool they are.

Any additional comments/ideas?
Maybe everyone has tried to fit in with other people that they like or try to be with but that doesn't mean they have to try to be "cool".

-Sister


2.

What does it mean to be "cool"?
To be cool is a way of being, is not something that you cannot pretend because if you do is unauthentic and people realize that. I think being cool is also just a label from society. And also i used as a tool to create pressure.

How important do you think this is?
I don't consider it significant because i think it depends more on what is important for you. I mean is as important as being friendly, kind, etc. So in reality is not important.

Any additional comments/ideas?
Is like I said at the beginning, people cannot pretend to be something they are not because is not going to work. It depends on a person's point of view.


-Father


After interviewing the memebers of my family I realized that we share a similar point of view on what is cool. It is something I didnt know before because we never talked about this, which is interesting because somehow we all believe in a very simlar thing. I assume that we obtained this definition from the same outside source which makes us think similary, however I cannot exactly say where we learnt this from or how we developed these thoughts in the past.

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Friends' Responses:

1.

What does it mean to be cool?
To have many friends that accept you for who you are and to be able to fit inside society's mold.

What is the significance of being cool?
The only reason that people want to be cool is to have friends and gain respect.

Do you have any additional ideas/comments about this matter?
I don't think people worry about being cool anymore. It is more like an old topic. I think it is more like being yourself lately. People have been forming clicks instead of being cool, just being around the people that are similar to them.

-Mercedes


2.

What does it mean to be cool?
Uhm...Well, colored hair, piercings, tattoos, not being a bomb and actually working for a living, and having people that appreciate you. I mean just enjoying life and not let little things bother you.

What is the significance of being cool?
I think its important because in my eyes that's the way to be happy in life. Like if other people see what you are then maybe they will try to achieve the same happiness you have.

Do you have any additional ideas/comments about this?
Oh people who are not cool are people who are trying too hard to be cool. You have to be cool naturally to be cool. Like being cool is different to every person, so I don't know really how being cool affects other people.

-Dahina

After asking my friends their opinion on what in cool and its significance I became to realize how different our perspectives are. I learnt that before they have never actually thought about this so they thought they didn't have a very satisfactory response.
When I asked my friend Mercedes I could somewhat relate to her response because she had a much more broad perspective on this term as opposed to my friend Dahina. Dahina considers appearance as a much more important aspect of being cool than having other people. And I know this because her first answer addressed "looks" not a social life. I assume that most people in New York, specially those in a lower class think similarly.


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Stranger's response:

1.

What does it mean to be "cool"?

hmm...Be yourself.

Ah you can do better than that!

I don't think it can be defined since every person has their own idea of cool
but i guess cool to me would mean being yourself, not caring about what others think negatively about you, you're relaxed and you talk and do things in a calm way, and i guess if people like you or hang around with you then you're cool. And you have a personality

What is the significance of being "cool"?

I think that it makes people conform.

Do you think this should be changed?

hmm..Wow. I don't know really.
Maybe it won't be good to change it. I mean it might confuse people cause they won't know whats good.

Do you have any additional comments or ideas?
Not really, sorry I wasn't much help.

Thank you!

-Victor (age: around 17)

2.

What does it mean to be "cool"?
uhm... Cold like person. Oh and I'd say relaxed and a person in style. For example like drugs make you relax therefore they are cool.

So do you think there is a general idea of what is cool or do you think everyone has its own?
No, everyone has its own.

So then what do you think about people labeling others cool and uncool when there are different definitions of it?
Uhm.. labeling and judging is what people do. To classify things into groups.

How important do you think it is having the word "cool" in our lives?
Once you hit adult the word loses it meaning.

Do you think that applies to everyone?
No, because some people don't grow up.

Do you have any additional comments or ideas?
Nope

Thank you so much!

-Igor (Age around 19)

After comparing the strangers' responses to the previous ones i obtained I came to the conclusion that indeed perhaps every person has a different definition of the word "cool" therefore no one should actually entitle others or one self as cool based on only one definition because it will not be seen the same by everyone. I think that it is somewhat necessary to categorize people into groups however. This is because society needs a sense of structure to feel that things are working the way they are supposed to. Therefore labeling people on appearance or behavior is what determines that person's place in that community. Which is not necessarily true, simply the way people might see that one individual and of course, themselves.