HW 23 First Constructivist Exploration of Cool

I don't think there is only one kind of Cool, no matter what people's perceptions of the definition are. In other words, what's cool in one social circle doesn't have to be cool in other social circles. I don't think there's one kind of cool for everyone living, which is why I say that there isn't a definite definition.

When it comes to the actual concept of Cool, I think cool is the process of being accepted either by people who are onlookers to the person, or being accepted into social groups based on the person him/her self. This connects back to my earlier idea of there not being one definition of cool. Whoever you hang out with socially, you obviously accepted them socially, showing that you think they are cool, and vice versa. This can absolutely be seen in different ways in different groups. For example, in one group, the newest Jordan sneakers that came out could be looked at as a cool topic, while in another group, that is just irrelevant. This kind of situation happens everyday. I'll give an example right now.

One situation could be that some people may think one kid is cooler than another kid because the first kid is more athletic, while the second kid is more into computers. Both those kids are definitely cool in their own ways, one is not cooler than the other. Sure, the first kid is more athletic than the second kid, what does that mean? Why is he cool? I bet if there was an actual situation like this ( which there is, and it happens everyday) and I walked up to the people who think the athletic kid is cool and asked them "Why is he cool? Better yet, what is Cool?", they'd have a hard time to have an accurate answer. I'll gladly admit that before I got down to thinking what cool is, I would've been in the same predicament where I didn't know what cool actually meant. Now that I was able to think about it, i know now that there is no such definition for Cool.

Without really deeply thinking about the term Cool, people may just assume that society is divided into the Cool people and the not so Cool people. Now that I had a chance to really think, as well as have it as a topic of discussion in class, I disagree with that assumption. To me, there is no exact definition of Cool, and it could be interpreted in many ways. To me, Cool is a process in which people accept and/or like People or Things. They look at them/it as being enjoyable or fun to be around. They give their respect to that person or object and want to be around them/it whenever they can. That is only part of my idea to what cool is. All I know is Cool isn't something that can be defined, just something that can be interpreted in may different ways by us.