The Cool Hunt

This article brought an entirely new side of the business world to my attention. I knew there was research and surveys done frequently to find out what people are interested in, but I never knew there were actual "cool-hunters". As I read the article, I felt like it never explicitly stated why things are considered "cool", just the fact that some things are cool and some things aren't. It's almost described as this random phenomenon that catches on and is extremely contagious. I liked the anecdote about the suede slippers that weren't selling well at all, but suddenly people in Soho thought they were cool, and then the shoes ended up becoming best-sellers. There really seems to be some innate sense of what is cool, as described in the article. Somebody looks at something and decides it has qualities that they like, and much of the population seems to agree for some reason. I think it's funny to see all the new trends that come and go, and I've definitely participated in some regretful ones, but then again, it seems like everybody does at one point.

Cool Hunters

I think that a lot of people would be able to relate to this article. I used to think that a lot of the things in my life were cool when really they weren't. Like for instance growing up with six brothers and sisters we always had to have what was hot and what everyone was wearing like shoes. If you had on the latest pairs of shoes then you were the coolest person I knew. We used to spend all of your time finding out what was hot and what everyone at school was wearing so we could get them and wear them them. If i knew what i knew now I would have never wasted my time. I couldn't believe that i wanted all of the same things that other people had just to look cool. But I do think that the converses in the story will never die. I understand why DeeDee used teen speech in the article to set herself apart from other people so that she could fit in with them. Everyone I know has tried to be "cool" or at least become apart of it somehow. I think that now that term is way overrated. Why cant everyone just be themselves and act and look they way they want to instead of trying to look like someone else. The way people see them selves trying to keep up has gotten a bit ridiculous.

Cool Hunting

My Zumba Instructor says that when anything cool comes to the United States it's gonna be from New York or Los Angeles. She was talking about Latin and other styles of dance, but I also think that's true for the majority of merchandise.

I definitely think it's true about the innovators, early adopters, early majority, and late majority. First it's just a few people that start using or wearing a trend, then it catches on and they have followers, and then those people have followers, and then those last people figure they should "get with the times" and join the wagon. Walk into any suburban high school and you'll see this. I remember when leggings came back into style when I was in 9th grade. First there were just like 3 girls at school who wore them. When I saw them I wasn't quite sure I liked them, but then I started going to Hollister and Wetseal and seeing them on the racks so then they started to appeal to me. And sure enough, by the time sophomore year rolled around, every girl including me had a pair. Most of the early adopters were cheerleaders or track stars who ran for student council and whose parents never failed to drop them some cash for shopping. Once I got to college, I realized those girls weren't cool, though! Most likely because they weren't really unique or innovators at all. Cool to me is being comfortable in your own skin and thinking outside the box.

Cool-Hunting.

This article made me laugh, honestly. It had a lot of valid points, though. Baysie and DeeDee seemed about as real as reality TV, so they have to be supercool and know how to find "cool."

People want to know what is in, and what isn't. To find out, everyone goes on "coolhunts" from time to time, and everyone's coolhunts are a little different. "Cool" is such a relative term when talking about temperature - let alone when trying to describe something as "the next big thing." Things that I think are cool are not going to be the same thing someone else thinks is cool. And some things that people think are awesome, I do not understand. For example, I will NEVER understand why girls think it's a good idea to have a big messy bun right on top of their heads. But so many people do it, so it MUST be cool, right? Sure, it is for them - not for me. (If you're reading this and you're one of those girls, please don't take offense. I'm just not "cool" enough, I guess.)

I love that cool works up a ladder instead of trickling down. It starts with kids on the street doing something out of the ordinary, and then moves on up. This is so true. Someone does something unique or original, and then everyone wants to be unique with them (oxymoron). So in a way, being cool is just being collectively original.

Cool Hunting

"Coolhunting is not about the articulation of a coherent philosophy of cool. It's just a collection of spontaneous observations and predictions that differ from one moment to the next and from one coolhunter to the next."

For this reason, among others, cool hunting isn't all that reliable. Clearly, cool isn't the same to everyone, everywhere. While there are magazines and websites for alternative rock, there's the same for hip-hop, for pop music, for country. With these come different styles and products. Baysie was looking for a different "cool" with Converse than with Reebok. The kids in the shoe store in New York where she realized she should move one sneaker to the boys' section could careless what type of shoe Kurt Cobain was wearing when he died. Location determines cool, too. As DeeDee said that Texas is behind New York in "cool," she would probably say that the kids in the village where I'm from are even behind the nearby cities, but it seems to me that Texas should have a different idea of cool from New York and villages from cities.

One good observation that Gladwell made was the paradox that as the cool hunter's find cool, it changes. As band's become mainstream, many people who never heard of them think they're a cool new band while many of their original fans turn their backs for selling out. Before Twilight made it big, the kids who read vampire novels like Ann Rice's were considered "goth" and mocked by the "cool" kids. The popular social networking sites have changed with time, from Myspace, to Facebook, to Twitter. Soon people will be updating on a new site and leave their Facebooks to be forgotten as they have their Myspace accounts. Cool hunters will pick up on this, followed by advertisers, news and radio stations, and then the cool will move on once again.

Cool

I found this article very interesting. It really made me think about what I think is cool. I remember thinking some of the things mentioned were cool, like when I was little I thought my older babysitter was the coolest, but now I just think her 90’s styles were funny looking and I probably would never wear them now. The things I think are cool, I wouldn’t say are necessarily trendy. I have my own style made up of all kinds styles new and old, that I find “cool”. Lately my style has been forced, because I work almost everyday and go straight from class to work, my style consists of jeans and a black shirt. I guess if people didn’t know that they would just think I really like black shirts! Since I have to wear them so much I really don’t like wearing plain black shirts now, because they make me think of work. Maybe I’ll start a trend! Someone like DeeDee will see me walking around in my black shirts and who knows everyone will be wearing plain black shirts and jeans! It is very interesting to think about how all the trends started. To just think one person thought a combination of canvas sneakers with a star logo would become such a large trend. Converse is still trendy even today. I have three pairs and find myself wanting more! My reasoning more for comfort and I like the way they look too. I wasn’t always this way, when I was young and still becoming myself, I followed the “cool kids” but that is all a blur now. Cool is merely a word I use to describe something that catches my eye.

The "Cool" Sensation

That "cool," tingly feeling people are striving to experience is something that is not unheard of and that has been done many, many times before. "Cool" is a repetition and a come-back of old things since new, original ideas are not "in" now a days. Our friends, The Backstreet Boys, tried their cool come-back when they sang "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" but their lyrics were a little off:

Am I original, yeaaaah
Am I the only one, yeeeeaah
Am I seeeexual, yeeeaaahhhh!

Sorry, boys. You're not original, you're not the only ones, and a big N-O to being sexual. Nice try, though.

Trends are something that repeat, only with one or two things that have been changed about it. Take Ugly Sweaters, for example. This year, around Winter, horrendous looking sweaters were “cool” party themes. The only thing that is different from the old, retro, granny sweaters is that people changed them and cut to show a bit more cleavage and that the sweaters no longer smelled like moth balls. We keep relying on old styles for our new fashions and to make them even more “hip,” we add some razzle dazzle to them.

Something that I think is trying to achieve cool-status now a days isn’t a fashion statement, but a personality quirk. It is cruelty. Go on the internet and look around Youtube, Facebook, even MSNBC news articles (just look down in the comments section) and you will see people saying horrible, terrible things about others. Sarcasm, profanities, and flat-out heartless comments litter the page. Look at what people say about Rebecca Black. Not only is she being harassed on Youtube on her own video, but also by people like Jay Leno. We get our humour from being mean to others. This cruelty has been around for years, but with the internet and sites allowing people to be anonymous, it is in the spotlight more. Especially with the cyber-bulling that caused teens to commit suicide. When I look around Facebook, people don't post nice things, or if they do, they are rare. People are usually saying "My Prof sucks... this friend of mine sucks... This artist sucks.." I have even seen people say people like Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black should go die. Now, I'm not a huge fan of either of them but just because they make music that isn't the best doesn't mean they are not real people with feelings. They read these comments and Rebecca Black even said on Good Morning America that someone wanted her to get an eating disorder and cut herself so she knew what it was like to be beautiful and then to kill her family. Whoa. Whoa. These comments come out of peoples' mouths without them giving it a second thought. It had become a natural response to have a mean comeback or to just say something heartless to someone in passing.

I think this internet cruelty is something that is spreading like an annoying, hurtful disease. It is "cool" to be sarcastic and to "Hate" on others, which, in my opinion, is the worst thing that could be described as as being cool. I hope that this plague is something that will vanish and the new "cool" thing will be genuine kindness.

The Cool Hunters

This article is interesting because I think the author expected to find different results than what he did. When he started the writing I think he thought that cool hunting would be more of a science and that he could learn how to do it himself. After talking to DeeDee and Baysie I think that he realized that finding these new trends is more of an instinct or an art form. He wrote that he expected to be able to write an encyclopedia on cool before he started this research. Then he stated how he thought cool was more of a moment to moment thing, which I believe is true. I also believe there are many forms of cool, he only really covers what DeeDee and Baysie see as cool. They were looking for the trends that Reebok would have been interested in but I think that he should have stated that they don't define cool. The people define cool and not all people are in the demographic that Reebok is interested in.

In Class Power Point is Evil

I think that a PowerPoint presentation can be executed well, but it can also end up cheesy and unprofessional if you get carried away with all the effects or don't provide relevant information. When I see someone's powerpoint slides, I can tell how long the person spent on it by the neatness of it and also how much content is there. Even if someone has 20 slides it could in reality only be 2 sentences worth of information.

PowerPoint

I would have to disagree with this article in the fact that PowerPoint is a very useful tool that helps to present things to people in an easy to understood manner. These presentations can be boring sometimes, but overall they are very informative. And yes I would have to say that they are scripted in the sense of being almost play-like. You have your intro body and conclusion, you know what is expected to be seen and what is coming next. In all of my group projects that I have done in college I have used PowerPoint to assist me while presenting information to my class. PowerPoint has always been very helpful to me throughout my whole life, and I will say that I still know how to write a paper. It’s not like I don’t know how to do it all, as I have been taught everything from school and PowerPoint is just one tool that I have utilized in my experiences.

Power Point

It seems to me like Tufte has a personal vendetta against Power Point. Some of his reasons for disliking Power Point come off as petty. For example, he talks about how in school they are teaching kids to write just a total of about 80 words for a presentation. He fails to mention the purpose of these presentations is to provide the main gist of the speaker’s point and then have the speaker go into further detail and not just read off the slides he or she has prepared.

Another thing that I thought was off about Tufte’s reasoning was his hate for the presentation of data in Power Point. From what he described about the cancer patient example seemed more like a user error then a program error. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not fully behind Power Point, but I feel that Tufte’s reasons don’t make an appealing argument.

Powerpoint

I agree with the author of the article for the most part. I feel that there shouldn't be an emphasis on technology related presentation, but writing. Writing is the basis for all communication and it baffles me to see that the younger generations taking no interest in it whatsoever. Instead, they just focus on learning everything they can on a computer to just half-ass presentations. I understand the use of technology in the classroom, but we need to get back to basic writing for A Powerpoint is a good aide for reinforcing what your content consists of. Pictures, for example, is a great way to show and emphasize certain aspects of the provided rhetoric. I feel that an essay can stand alone a lot better without the outside help of other media. However, with Powerpoint, you are limiting the amount of information to provide. Furthermore, if you merge the two, using visual aides to back up the rhetoric, it would be a very simple, yet effective way to further convey your thesis. What teachers should be teaching is when and where it is appropriate to use Powerpoint.

In class reading: Power Points

I feel that this author has some very valid points in his arguments and I would have to agree with what he is saying. I think one of his best arguments is that you are not able to put a lot of words to a slide and in not being able to do so the PowerPoint ends up being a million slides. Thus the audience will get very bored very quickly with the amount of slides that there are. Also I would definitely have to agree with him when he says that it makes charts and statistics a lot harder to see. Instead of just having it all on one page and being able to see it all at once, the PowerPoint will make the same information appear and a numerous amounts of pages. This I feel also makes it hard for the audience to remember everything the speaker was saying because there have been so many slides with a little bit of information on each slide and it is hard to remember it all. It would be a little less hard to remember it all if it was all nice and neat together instead of spaced out throughout 100 slides.

Powerpoint thoughts

The author's arguement may have been a bit overexagerated, but I can agree to a certain degree on many of his points. Much of the disdain people commonly have for powerpoint presentations is probably from the fact that it is the industry standard in any kind of presentation-- from schools to big businesses. The redundancy of the formatting and style is enough to take a toll on the audience.

PowerPoint is Evil

I do agree with Edward Tufte that powerpoints today are just a downfall to what ever point you are trying to make or whatever information you are trying to get across. Personally I have never been a fan of PowerPoint, it was confusing to me. I do not understand the need for a professor that teaches lectures to just cram thirty some slides with information, sometimes cutesy pictures that go along with the lecture, and all of the various slide templates you can choose from to make the powerpoint look more appealing. In my opinion it doesn't, alot of the time it is somewhat hard to read off the powerpoint because of the colors and the design of the background. It is still boring to listen to a professor read off his/her powerpoint slides the entire lecture, no matter how nice it looks or what fun effects it has, plus it almost makes me think that my professor may not know all of the material they are trying to teach because they do not really add much to the lecture, besides maybe a few side comments/details or examples, they just read the content on the slides, which is alot of times very similar to what is in the book anyways. When professors use powerpoints for lectures, with a majority of the information already on the slides, and post them online it just makes me that much more unmotivated to go to that class because I can just read the lecture from the slides myself.

PowerPoint is Evil

Tufte's criticisms of PowerPoint were cutting and got straight to the point. He did not try to hide his complete contempt for PowerPoint and its ability to turn a simple presentation into a cheap, unnecessarily confusing mess on some slides. I definitely understand where he is coming from and I even agree to some degree with the majority of what he said. I also feel like PowerPoint is too, too structured for what it should have been intended to do which is to easily inform an audience instead of its actual purpose, to make it easier for the presenter. PowerPoint allows little content and fun animations take greater importance in creating such presentations. This is perfectly fine, I think, when in a business meeting the point of the pitch is to give as little information as possible because most business men and women do not want to hear pages upon pages of logistics even though it may be the more beneficial route. As people, we don't like doing more work then we have to especially when it is something we dislike but at the same time, we don't like our time being watsed by someone reading slides with little to no useful information about the topic in question.

Power Points

I found this artical interesiteng because I have alway preferd doing power points. but he made some good points about why power point presentatons really are not the best way to present information. One point he maid was "PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play -very loud, very slow, and very simple." Which is very true i can think of many examples where a power point had sounds or clip art added to the page that just distracted from the information instead of making it more interesting.And the little bit of info that was on the page was very waterd down.

Evil Powerpoint

After reading this article, I sort of wonder how someone can be so passionately against something like Microsoft Powerpoint, but I do think he has a few valid points. I agree that kids shouldn't necessarily be taught only how to make a powerpoint when doing a presentation or report, but I think there are many ways to fix that. I think that Powerpoint is very useful in the fact that it gives the audience facts and statistics that they can visibly see and better absorb, but the presenter should only be using the slides as some basic information for the audience and should have the bulk of whatever they are presenting written down and should be reading off of that. Mostly, though, I really think Powerpoint is a very useful tool for presentations as it draws the audience in and can keep their attention through some visual aid, but I also believe that it should only supplement a presentation.

Powerpoint Is Evil

I like how the author compared drugs and their side effects to the main purpose of how powerpoints effect us. I feel like powerpoints are a very welll constructed way to get the direct message across, but along with powerpoints should be more verbal information. although, sometimes with too much wording and too many colors and way to much detail can trigger the eye to not look at the main context of the slide. I feel like powerpoints have their pros and cons, when i took my communications class here at Kent State University, I had to construct a powerpoint, but on that powepoint were like broad topics or important pieces of information that would be elaborated on verbally.

Powerpoint

I both agree and disagree with Tufte because Powerpoint can be both good and bad. I think that Powerpoint presentations can be used correctly, in correct settings to add to a lecture or project. I am very slow at taking notes and understanding material; if my professors did not put much of their lecture on slides for the class, I might not be able to follow at all. However, Tufte makes a very good point in saying that:

Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. (...) for a week of work. Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days (...).

I sat in on a friend's writing class at Akron U my junior year of high school. The day I went, the students were presenting short research projects of idealistic vacations. These students did worse on these projects than the videos fellow students and I were making for our Applied Communications course at my high school. The slides had very little material and no citations. However, the students did include a lot of photos, and even some effects between slides. I was astonished at how little effort was actually put into the projects and I think that this level of work is what Tufte is afraid of.

in class-powerpoint

I somewhat agree with Tufte on his strong belief that Powerpoint has corrupt the way people present information or try and sell a point. The fact that it is even called "power point" can lead one to believe that the person presenting something has "dominance over the auidence." I personally believe that the audience is the biggest factor when it comes to presenting things, if they aren't engaged and interested in what is being presented making things "dance in color" won't help the speaker have a more profound impact. Content is crucial in anything. Professor say all the time that it is quality not quantity and that they can tell when a student is completely bullshitting them. So if a power point presentation becomes the basis of what one is trying to present and if there is little content and thought involved, then the audience will lose focus quickly and the presenter might as well just take a seat and let the auidence read the slides themselves. As Tufte says, "rather than supplementing a presentation, it [powerpoint] has become a substitute for it." Provide me (the audience)an outline, but speak thouroughly and have substance or I am no longer with you.

in class - powerpoint

I can see where Tufte is coming from, and agree that PowerPoint can be bad for young children when they are just starting out reading and learning. I don’t think PowerPoint is all bad; I like PowerPoints and their pictures and colors and what not, for me if you put a picture with information I will now register that picture with the information and remember it better. PowerPoints with all information and no visuals are boring to me and I will tend to become less focused on it. I don’t think PowerPoint is all evil, it can be bad for elementary kids just starting out but in colleges, high schools, businesses, it can be very helpful.

PowerPoint Is Evil - In Class.

I agree with Edward Tufte. PowerPoint is speech-making made easy and can be very useful for presentations of information and ideas. However, it is greatly overused. I hate it when people have a PowerPoint presentation and just read everything off of the slides verbatim, without adding anything else of substance. PowerPoint slides should be an outline of what someone wants to say, not a script for his every thought. If I wanted to hear someone read, I would ask them to read me a story or something. Otherwise, I'm quite capable of reading for myself.

I think PowerPoint can take away a speaker's ability to really talk in front of people. If you really need PowerPoint to hold your hand along every step of the way, you probably shouldn't be giving a speech in the first place. Again, if PowerPoint is just being used as an outline, I don't think it's a big deal; don't let the white screen on the wall do all of your talking for you.

I do think that the use of PowerPoint with elementary children should be sparse. When children are still developing, they need the extra steps and examples so they know how to write in complete sentences and form complete thoughts - not create formulated lists of information.

I don't think so.

I disagree strongly with this article. I think he is looking way too heavily on the slideshow. While I can see what i he is trying to get at, he only describes, what I think, to be poorly done and executed presentations. Using powerpoint is only meant to aid a speech or lecture, he talks as if people only have the ability to marvel at a piece of technology while completely ignoring the content. I was taught, that when using a powerpoint to never make it distracting or that you shouldn't even glance at it during. This article has a total focus on the negative and barely even considers the positive.

Power Pont is Evil

I think that Tufte is completely wrong and very unprofessional in his arguement. I feel that Power Point is a great way to help audience members feel part of the presentation. Many people are more of a visual learner than an audio learner. Some people understand the message better if it is written in front of them instead of them being told the information. He says that it is slide after slide, well that is why it is called a slide show. It helps the audience keep track with what the speaker is saying. Tufte says that in grade schools that kids often write slides with a few words and a picture from clip art. These kids are learning how to use Power Point and the many tools and options that help to make a slide. he aks like these kids are going to be making slides like this all their life. I also think that Tufte is unprofessional in his arguement against Power Point. I believe that it is extremely inappropriate to use curse words in an argument such as this.

powerpoint is evil??

The title of this article alone is a bit ridiculous to me. how is it that someone can honestly think a Microsoft Office program is "evil"? The author gives little detail of such a name calling. He says that for students, Powerpoint is substituting a presentation and little is accomplished when students are assigned a powerpoint presentation. I do agree, however, that they make a speech/presentation much easier on the presenter because it allowed little bits of information to help move you along. The slides become a crutch if you forget your place in the speech. Where I disagree with the author is that he considers it a bad thing. Powerpoints allow the audience to visually see what the speaker is saying and acts as a reinforcement of the information. If you miss a statistic the speaker just gave, typically you can glance at the slide and see what you had missed. I also think powerpoints are vital for teachers. In a lecture setting, powerpoints help the students grasp the important context that the professor is trying to get out. Powerpoints also allows students to take accurate notes to ensure that when studying, you have the right information and materials to do so. I think that little of what powerpoint offers is evil, in fact, I think powerpoint is very useful.

Power Point

I would have to say that this article makes plenty of good arguments. Arguments that I feel the general public and especially the student audience member already knows and understands. We have all felt belittled be a power point at one time or another in our educational careers. I would have to say that power point for me is one of the most boring ways to get across information and inform me of a topic. It is easy to space out or simply not care about what is coming next or how it pertains to the previous slide. Overall I would have to say that this article just said what weve all been shouting in our heads for years. "Im not a boring teacher, I'll present using .ppt files, that'll show 'em". Are there better ways to say things? In this mans opinion yes, there is. But is there a better way to condition students for corporate America? Probably not, and thus the trend continues.

Powerpoint is really evil...

I agree with the author in this article because I for one have never enjoyed making powerpoint slides. My problem with powerpoint is that it is to simple for me. I always think to complex into things or just enough but never enough to fit it on a slide, "especially if I have to put clipart in there." I feel like powerpoint is to simplistic that people who need to present or speak on a very in depth topic would have big problems using powerpoint efficiently. I have always preferred projector presentations and speakers because it forces them to take notes in a way that people can take notes from the notes they have taken. I know it sounds confusing but what I am trying to say is that people who write down notes for a projector have also read the material and either memorized it or learend it to where they could present it without slides. In conclusion powerpoint is to simplistic.

Death to Powerpoint

Edward Tufte makes so many excellent points that I agree with 100% about powerpoint presentations. Last year in my college writing II course at my other college, I had to create a powerpoint that discussed what I wanted to find in my research paper, but it had to be simple and easy for anyone to understand. My topic was over sexism and racism in Disney films. We had to have at least 4 pictures in our 6-slide presentation. Oh, god, I wanted to stab myself when I had to create this... this thing. I thought it was a waste of time- in the classroom and outside of it, too. I could have easily listened to all 20-some other students talk about their ideas for 1 minute instead of watching horribly made, monotonous powerpoint presentations that took 4-5 minutes to show.

Granted, some people need to see information in front of them, such as graphs, charts, or in some cases, words if they are visual learners and that is where powerpoints can help students, teachers, clients, and coworkers out, but any other time, when a person is using a powerpoint just to make their idea "pretty" it is a waste of time. Like Tufte says, "Often, the more intense the detail, the greater the clarity and understanding" but teachers like to put the bare minimum on their slides to make it easier for themselves and the audience.

Cool Hunters

This article really made me think about what was cool, or what other people thought was cool. I started to think about what I considered cool, and how I figured out why it was cool. I consider the things that I like to be cool and I don’t worry about what the new hip style is. I like to think about how I have my own style and how some of the things I own or wear might conform to what other people think is cool. Being a college student I personally do not have the cash to keep up with new styles, nor do I have the time to be worrying about new styles and what other people are wearing. Honestly a lot of the clothes I wear have been given to me as gifts, for Christmas and my birthday or just over time. My parents know my style, and although even if I receive a gift that isn’t exactly my style I most likely will not return it. I will wear it just because it was a gift and I understand that I will be judged for everything I wear. But, honestly that is not one of my biggest concerns, especially when I am going to class, I do not really care what I look like. I feel like everyone should have their own style and should not be overly concerned with what is considered “cool”. Ultimately, it is hard to ever know what is “cool” because trends are changing so often. My one question that I have is how can you be a “cool” person if your always trying to be someone that you might not really be..?

Cool Hunters

This article was unique in the fact that it tackled a topic that has been unanswered for many years, and really will never answered. That question is "What really is cool?" Since it's hard for me to describe it I will just say what I feel it is in my best words. I think that when someone asks what is cool, they are asking people what makes me fit in and get the most attention. Now a days, even proved by the article people associate "being cool" with having the best name brand clothes, having all the new technology that is the best advertised. Pretty much it seems that to be cool you have to have a lot of money. Also no 0ne will ever truly know what it is to be cool or how cool is cool.

Cool

Determining what is cool or what makes something cool is a difficult thing. Trends come and go so often that you can never really tell where the source of the fad is from. A good example of a fad that came and went really fast was Silly bands. My roommates and I were talking about this the other day. Silly Bands were popular for ONE summer pretty much. It is amazing looking back the past year at how the popularity of some things can spread so rapidly. What started the fad? The media or some small group of kids who started using them and it just caught on? Who knows?

On the other side of things, what makes things not cool anymore? What makes that pair of shoes or shirt you bought a year or two ago not fit in anymore? I guess it could be the over exposure of a certain thing to a group of people can make it not cool anymore or seem played out. Mostly though, I think that the upper class, or popular groups of people decide indirectly what “cool” is.

cool hunters

I absolutely loved this article. I found it very interesting and truthful. The fact is, cool cannot be manufactured it can only be observed, as rule two of cool states. Cool is all about setting some sort of trend, making a statement and then spreading the word. The article mentions how cool has its "innovators" then its "early followers" (the group of people that others look up to) then more followers as they see the "sophisticated" or highly respected (in their opinion) group doing it, and so. The problem, once the rest of the population starts catching onto something, it just isn't cool anymore. I like the idea that you have to find "cool people first and cool things after" because "cool people are a constant" and cool things are indeed a variable. There will always be that guy or girl doing something out of the ordinary. Whether it is a clothing choice, a music choice, how they choose to spend their leisure time, etc. someone is always testing the waters and pushing the boundaries of what it means to be cool. It is like the example of the Joe Regular in a coffee shop where everyone there has blue hair. Now this probably isn't one's typical impression of "coffee-shop goers" but if this is the trend that has caught on and this is what people are doing, well then it is no longer so outrageous and innovative to have blue hair and in fact, the Joe Regular becomes the "cool kid" because he is set apart now from his peers. This is what I like about cool. It is doing something other people aren't doing. Another example from my own life and our culture today: leggings. Maybe leggings were cool in the beginning, that is how all things start; a small group of people are trying out new ideas (or maybe reviving old ideas) and slowly people start to catch on and companies work to market the ideas (thanks to their coolhunters) and then there is this big explosion of a trend, in this case "the legging explosion." Point is, leggings are not cool anymore because everbody is doing it. Most would argue that if everyone is doing it then it probably is cool, but really it is just mainstream marketing selling what was cool yesterday, today. Truly cool people will tell you that most people are just "running after their friends" and are not really cool themselves because, as the cool hunters say, "if the [non-cool] tried to attain it [cool] then it would no longer be cool."

Cool

When it comes to what is cool, who's to say exactly. The term itself is rather ambiguous. When it comes to people being cool, I have no idea what that entails. All throughout my life, it's been nothing but one beauty contest after the other. The 'cool' kids always reigned as the most popular. It seemed like their so-called 'coolness' had nothing to do with their identity, but those they aspired to be like. Their facades definitely matched the superficiality of Hollywood. They wore name-brand clothing, listened to the most popular music, and never bothered to associate with anyone who wasn't 'cool'. They had all the worst qualities, for the wrong reasons. What cool is and what cool is concieved as are two completely different things. I feel that the truely cool people are the ones with personality; who are original in thought and aren't afraid to express their true selves. Everyone is unique in their own way, why not celebrate that. Isn't that what ultimately defines cool?

Am I cool?

This is the question everyone wants to find the real answer to. What is cool? The only thing about it is that it is always changing. One month some item might be the “cool” thing to get or to have, and then a month later, something new will have come out and then what you have won’t be cool anymore. Sometimes I will be one of those people that if someone has something cool then I will go out and get it myself, but usually I do not really care. If everyone has something but I do not like it or anything then I don’t care I am not going to follow everyone else and get it myself. I only get stuff based off of my opinion and not what other people have to say about it. I will use the example of shoes. I just recently bought a pair and my one friend was saying how he did not like them that he thought his were better or more “cool”. But that really did not bother me in the least. I did not like his shoes at all. I liked mine so much better. And since the shoes I bought were for me, I made sure that I liked them and that’s all that matters to me. I would not care if everyone in the entire world did not like them, I do, and that’s all that matters to me. This whole article reminded me of the south park episode called chinpokomon. It was all about the kids getting new toys and Stan would always get the toys too late, he would get them when they were not cool anymore and the next best toy has already come out and everyone makes fun of him for having the toy that was “so yesterday”