What is Cool?

    I feel we all have different ideas on what "cool" is for example,  I feel my views on being cool are totally different from most teenagers. To me, being cool is all about creativity. I'm really interested in art so I think cool is looking unique, which is mainly seen through fashion. I would find someone that was wearing something like a corset cooler then someone wearing a floral dress from Urban Outfitters because the corset is uncommon, as the dress is not. When people follow trends too much, I just see them as a poser because their only dressing like that because thats what's "in". I feel I can connect better to someone dressed unique because their clothing reflects a lot about what they like or what they are interested in.

     However we also have similar views on what is cool. For example, going to parties and getting intoxicated is considered cool to most people, at least it is as a teenager. Such acts are probably considered cool because they are the things we have been told not to do all our lives by authority figures like our parents or the police. Parents are always telling kids that alcohol and drugs are bad. There are also many laws prohibiting "minors" from drinking and prohibiting everyone from doing drugs. Breaking these rules makes us feel free and rebellious and it helps us break away from stuff like the work we get at school.

     Something else a lot of people also consider cool are celebrities, which I think is due to the media. A lot of magazines feature which clothes are “cool” by showing them on celebrities, they even conveniently tell you where to buy them and how much they cost. Its all just for advertising trying to make people buy their merchandise. A lot of trends are influenced from celebrities clothes, tattoos, piercing, etc... For example, lots of stores will label there products that have been worn by celebrities. For example:



      This is a picture of a pair of sunglasses being sold on fredflare.com. The website also includes a picture of Lindsay Lohan wearing the sunglasses. Even if customers don’t like the item, they might buy them because a celebrity is wearing them. Celebrities are heavily admired in our society and many people will buy the things they have to be like them. Even in the book Feed, which takes place in the future, teenagers are still influenced by the media. Through out the whole book, almost everyone is constantly on their feeds getting information on what's “hot” and what's “not”. One of the big things I noticed in the book that the girls are always going off to change their hair styles based on what their feeds say is popular. It just shows that our obsession with the media and looking “cool” is so obvious now, that it is predicted to take place in the future as well.