What is ‘Cool’?
The word “cool” has been used to illustrate the popularity of a subject, image, word, phrase, music, etc. But what really is cool? Who or what differentiates cool from something that is considered not cool? Thousands of people have attempted to narrow down the symbols of what constitutes as being “cool”. According to dictionary.com, the word cool literally means “not excited, calm, composed, or under control.” This is a paradox within itself. Today, society affiliates the word with something that is exciting or better than another. So what really is cool? Are you cool if you are new and exciting or are you considered cool if you are calm and collected?
The word cool first came into use during the period of slavery in the United States. African-Americans involved with slavery used this as a defense mechanism to cope with the unbearable stress of being captive. Therefore, cool was simulated as an approach to submission and obedience. On the contrary, in today’s world, the characteristics of being cool are completely opposite. For example, to be considered cool today, one must be authentic and interesting. This then creates a sense of phlegmatic behavior, because people then depend on others to formulate cool instead of actively fulfilling their own lives with what they consider cool. Now, it is more common for people in certain groups to follow along with what everyone else is doing than to exercise their own creative muscle and discover their own ways of being authentic and new. As a result of this, the few individuals who are thinking outside of the box now become intangible objects of mystery and desire. These people are looked up to not because they are reaching outside of the group, but because they are not afraid of being innovative in a world of duplicates (Botz-Bornstein).
This new way of being cool is a dilemma within itself. Even though the people who are being considered cool are looked up to, this also can be seen as generic and, in a sense, social decay. These people who create cool are caught up in a circle of never ending mass marketing. The cycle begins with the creation of cool, continues with the mass production of it, and finally, the resistance to it. In a way, the development of cool is taken too far. For instance, “winning is cool, yet doing anything to win is not” (Botz-Bornstein). The balance of cool is directly equivalent to the person’s style and swagger, not through rules and standards. Yet, as a society, we need rules and standards to live. Living life through the masses is just as bad as being overly bizarre. It is not cool to have everything, but it is also not cool to give everything away. What really makes something cool is the penetrating style of it rather than the actual pursuit of it. In plain text, cool is control. Those who are cool are followed by many who, therefore, dictate everything they think is not cool. This never ending cycle begins to alienate in order to create authentic ideas of what is or how to be cool (Botz-Bornstein).
In order to begin the cycle, there must be people who find the new and exciting material. These people are called “coolhunters”. Coolhunters are people who ‘spot’ the next big thing and market it to other businesses. The method of coolhunting begins at the bottom with the people who the hunters believe to be truly innovative individuals. The process is directly proportional to the central idea of the hunt and the paradox with which it represents, those who are cool are the only ones who understand what cool is. Again, this demonstrates the power and control of what or who is cool. This then arises the perpetual question of how do the hunters know what is cool. Many say “we just know” or they have “a gut feeling”, but does this embody a double standard? Who decides what is or is not cool? Are we all just following in someone else’s footsteps and adhering to their words? The hunters are not necessarily interested in who these people are but what they represent. For example, what they are wearing or the slang they use. As the cycle persists, it has to end somewhere. Consistently, the rest of the world who is considered not cool will then adopt the cool. What the cool are doing today, the uncool will be doing tomorrow. This then creates mass production. Once a product is mass produced, it seemingly becomes not cool, because it is no longer authentic since everyone is now doing it or has it (Southgate).
According to Southgate, authenticity is the root of all coolness. Authenticity is undisputed origin or authorship. Hence, it is the expression of one’s self. Nobody is the same. Because of this, the coolest of people are the people who do not mind expressing themselves extrovertly. These extroverts are socially engaged in everything they do, and the hunters crave this type of person. Like in high school, the uncool want to be just like them. This establishes social status. Through this status, one can manipulate anyone into thinking like them. Again, this adds to the paradox of what is cool. If we all want to be just like the coolest person in the room, is anyone really authentic? Southgate states that because of this never ending sequence of events, the cool are forced to move on when their self-expression no longer is authentic but mass produced (Southgate).
The most common sequence of this cycle is slang. Generations upon generations have used hundreds of different kinds of slang terms. The most popular of these terms is the word cool. The word has gone through a plethora of changes since the nineteenth century, such as swell, dandy, groovy, super, awesome, and fly. In agreement with Robert Moore’s article, “We’re Cool, Mom and Dad are Swell,” Moore states that slang has two functions, the first being to express approval and the second to connect the speaker with an attitude or set of values according to their generation. Slang has been an important part of each generation, because it connects people with a specific period of time, such as the word ‘groovy’ with the sixties. Just like mass production, each new generation begins to disown the slang and creates its own new words. The cool now becomes the uncool, which in return generates new words to compensate for the older uncool words the older generations once spoke (Moore).
The term cool, once known as swell, has had two major usages. The first usage of the term was used to describe the pleasure of the company of a woman. Phrases such as, “it was all-swell to kiss Lucy,” and, “Gerry and I were having a swell time,” were most common in the description of a plutonic friendship. The second use of the term was to describe fun or enjoyable situations, such as parties or friendly gatherings. Both usages are common today, except we agree that the term is used to describe anything that has a positive impact. We connect the word cool with places or people who are ‘in’ or ‘in-style’. All in all, the term has been adopted into a variety of different other terms, yet the definition still remains the same (Moore).
According to Closson’s article on social development, she states that being cool is directly related to being considered popular. Popularity is an adolescent’s main concern while growing up. Young girls characterized being cool with being the prettiest, whereas boys characterized being cool with being the funniest or the most athletic. Therefore, those who are popular are, in turn, cool. Closson also explains that this phenomenon does not exclude young adults. Teenagers are the most influenced age demographic. Teenagers between the ages of ten to eighteen are the most prone to being influenced by someone other than themselves. Young children and teenagers alike crave the attention of their peers, such as their friends, family, and teachers. This craze to be popular and cool is what pushes the cycle of cool to uncoil (Closson).
These children who are the coolest have the most social power and control over the children who are unpopular and non cool. Since these children are the ones who create the next generation’s version of the word, it is hard to interpret exactly what is cool or popular about them. The biggest obstacle a researcher faces when conducting a study is the fact that what is cool to these new children is not what the researcher considers cool (Closson). Hence why it is so difficult to pinpoint the next popular song, movie, toy, store, etc. Because of this, Closson reports, researchers tend to depend on these children and young adults to unravel the latest trends.
So what does it really mean to be cool? According to researchers, to be considered cool, one must be authentic and original, but as stated, being cool usually encounters the "copy-cat" of another individual. This copy/paste method interferes with the cool cycle, because it raises the question as to what really is cool. The contradiction between the two creates a remixing or collage culture. Meaning as a society, we recreate what has already been created, but with a twist. This explanation, in turn, solves the mystery. To be cool, one must be authentic. To be authentic, one must not adhere to what others are doing. To not follow others, one must recreate what is already considered cool.
Works Cited
Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten. "What Does It Mean to Be Cool?" Philosophy Now 80 (2010): 6-7. Humanities International Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=38f7088a-5234-4bd9-b602-1497cab64738%40sessionmgr10&vid=5&hid=5>.
Closson, Leanna. "Social Development." Status and Gender Differences in Early Adolescents' Descriptions of Popularity 18.2 (2009): 412-26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d4292965-d582-4bfe-b9b7-91408988d99d%40sessionmgr13&vid=4&hid=19>.
Moore, Robert. "We're Cool, Mom and Dad Are Swell: Basic Slang and Generational Shifts in Value." American Speech 79.1 (2004): 59-86. Communications and Mass Media Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=50183c90-d034-4827-baa8-fdc531d6fedd%40sessionmgr4&vid=6&hid=15>.
Southgate, Nick. "Coolhunting with Aristole." International Journal of Market Research45.2 (2003): 167-89. Business Source Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=90cc5e1c-220c-4d32-84f3-a88a7d3b8bc2%40sessionmgr114&vid=7&hid=5>.