do you care about being cool?

yes what can u do

Yes, but I'm positive my personal definition of cool is way off the mark compared to what actual people find cool

I'm a middle aged woman. "Being cool" stopped caring about me a long time ago. I don't miss it.

this vanishes before you're 40, usually, but I always preferred Oasis to Radiohead.

I'm not sure if it's "being cool" that I care about, but yes, I am horrifically wracked with self-doubt, misery and anxiety that I'm somehow not... enough, I guess. Not just not cool enough, but not enough at all.

I'm pretty sure I stopped caring about being cool once I had my first kid

care more about being funny, and kind (when I can spare the emotional energy)

i dont care but i have had coolness thrust upon me against my will

I really wanted to vote no but I think if I'm being honest (and ILX polls demand honesty above all else), I have to say yes.

are u cool enough to admit you care about being cool?

Yes I still care about it, but about 30% as much as I did 5 years ago. I moved to about as uncool a neighborhood as one can live in, most of my clothing shopping is for work and consists largely of ordinary chain retail, I don't spend much time going to shows or art galleries or checking out hot new farm-to-table gastropubs, I have memberships in various childrens' museums, etc. If anything, I like to imagine there's a certain cool in my ability to stay sort of aware of things while not flailing to be some brooklyn "cool dad" that puts black flag onesies on his baby. You know, a sort of dignified, adult cool.

i am cool but i do worry about losing it sometimes

well, obvs not a brooklyn cool dad since I live in queens, xp, meant that more as an archetype. I do wonder if I'm the "kewl dad" described by hannah horvath in that one girls' episode, but I don't think I do the "ironic dad" thing either.

I guess to a certain extent I would like to be cool, but I make zero effort in order to be so. I guess that's not exactly the same thing as not caring, but the result is basically the same.

always hated the idea of cool but i don't really want to be a dork so i dunno

Depends on what we're talking about. If we're talking about clothing and style, yeah I try to be "cool" (i.e. have an idiosyncratic style that requires a bi of effort). If it's music/movies/books/etc, I couldn't care less about what's cool, I love some of the corniest stuff. And with other human beings, no, coolness is not good, warmth is better.

cool thread

more or less yeah but I tend to strive for situations where the bar for cool is kept low

http://media.giphy.com/media/d5LoJwi7aj612/giphy.gif

Yes, I'm 31 and I still care. Hopefully I will stop within the next 5 years or so.

One thing I have def noticed in my mid-30s is that certain things have lost their aura of *cool* for ME, which is probably the flipside of becoming less cool. Like I feel much less of an urge to check out new bands, and a lot of new bands of the type that once would have had a mystique of cool for me now just look kind of young and try-hard and desperate, and don't actually seem all that cool to me. I think you start to recognize ageless patterns in marketing that lay bare that what you're witnessing is just that -- marketing, and not some deeper sign of ineffable "cool." I don't know if I'm explaining this well, but I think I've lost some of the ability to suspend disbelief that comes along with buying into certain kinds of cool.

emil.y strikes me as one of the ilxors who could try not to be cool and it'd just keep sticking to her

Generally, yes. Although it depends how cool is defined. I've always been more aware of various trends, music, fashion etc than a lot of people my age who I know. But I think I went slack on trying to be cool a couple of years ago and it had the effect of chilling me out quite a lot but also making me a bit more slack in other areas of my life too. Most of the people I work with are a few years younger than me and I can't help feeling a bit like a desperately unfashionable fogey in front of them. And when you think like that, you start acting like it.
I felt kind of old, washed up, lacking in the vitality which comes with being young and exciting. When you live in a small town and work an office job it's easy just to start dressing-down and going sedentary. In the last couple of months though I've decided I need to change or else I'll stagnate. I went out and bought some new clothes; ones that suit the age I am (early-mid 30s) without making me look like I'm hopelessly trying to be down-with-the-kids, but also not like I'm ready to embrace middle age just yet.
It's funny, the base psychological effect of wearing a new jacket. You just feel better walking around and people sometimes even compliment you, which does ridiculous wonders for the ego. At the same time, I find myself acutely aware of how facile this is, and how just because I spent some dosh on a piece of clothing, it shouldn't mean anything. I should be able to wear whatever I want (I know a lot of cool people who don't dress in any particular way at all, they're just 'cool') and still be able to project myself in a cool way if I want.

i guess i care about it sometimes but mostly in the sense of just trying not to be a complete tool the whole time, rather than coolness as some sort of ideal state that i'm ever likely to attain. but maybe that's a different thing?

The many-layered onion of cool

i don't worry about being cool because i have a nintendo

Back when I was young enough for cool to still care about me, I was always of the impression that *cool* was something like zen, in that, the harder you tried to attain it, the less you actually attained or were it.

Therefore the most "cool" thing to do, is actually not to *care* about being cool. Which might just end up in one of those Godel Escher Bach recursive loops of brain-hurtingness if you think about it too hard, so let's just unthink this thought.

P much what marge simpson said, tho, so by definition uncool im afraid

Nah, not interested -- happy to have let those considerations fall away. The times I have embarrassed myself most have been the times when I cared about coolness.

xxp I reached a similar conclusion after hearing Elvis on the album 'Having Fun With Elvis On Stage' - that being genuinely cool meant doing whatever you wanted, without a moment's thought for how 'cool' it might make you seem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0M2xWs8zsc

i care about being cool, cuz i long for an invite to the private 77 board

Don't care.

Am.

I think I care more about being cool at the age of 28 than I did when I was 18, which is tragic, but there you go

i don't think that using an elvis as a comparator for cool is going to be very useful to yr everday person

He was cool because he didn't care about being cool.

there he goes, etc.

can't believe this isn't on youtube

Homer: So, I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool.
Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
Homer: You know what the song says: "It's hip to be square".
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart & Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart & Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring, right?
Bart & Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?

that's nonsense tho snobes

he was cool, so he didnt need to care about being cool

P much what marge simpson said, tho, so by definition uncool im afraid

― treeship's assailing (darraghmac), Tuesday, March 25, 2014 6:01 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is otm

If you could be generally well liked and respected by the people around you, and they enjoyed your company, but did not consider you 'cool' would that be enough for you or would you still be bummed you weren't cool?

but did not consider you 'cool', would that be enough for you or would you still be bummed out you weren't cool?

i like to think idgaf abt being cool but the other night i had a drink with a friend of a friend who is like, two kids, lower middle class suburban house, ugly wife (probably), sneakers polo dad jeans, smoking on an e cigarette and in my mind i was like this dude is wack as fuck i hope i don't end up like this.

I suspect that the formalised idea of 'being cool' is one of the illusions that advertisers use to try and make us dissatisfied with our lives and therefore more likely to buy stuff.

If you care, then you aren't cool.

no there is def such a thing as cool besides the marketign idea of cool which (pro tip) isn't cool

if you answer this question, you're not cool. if you post in this thread, you're not cool. actually maybe if you post on ilx you're not cool.

are u cool or wack as fuck

y/n?

when I think about being cool I think about a tweet I once saw

dave cool

Dave Coulier

Coolio

zizek

Marcel Marceau (RIP)

zizek possibly a legit answer! (though not sure i personally find him that cool)

Mr Freeze

Mr Freeze is cold, not cool. Villains can't be cool. Like Margaret Thatcher.

david coverdale sure looks weird now

http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/lf/vrma_270812/david-coverdale-vegas-rocks-magazine-awards-2012_4048045.jpg

did he swallow Tanya Kitaen?

So what's cooler than being cool?

oh fuck i thought you was joking about that being Coverdale

obv he has been slidin' the botox in

and other things

I don't care about "being cool", was a time when someone might beat you up or even arrest you for it - try the conservative '50's.

I have always felt this was a question about religion in code. I can't imagine being proud of living in an ugly and boring neighborhood. Cool is essential in some cultures, others don't have it. Presbyterians and Methodists aren't "cool" - Baptists are.

I have had people in my family who were impossibly cool. That means I don't care whether I am cool - it is my job to determine whether YOU are. /kidding

Michael B sure is upset abt going bald. Fwiw ppl didn't start telling me how cool etc they thought I ws till I'd lost a LOT of hair, man

Also the guy I know who'd be most consistently thought of by everyone in the idie/etc/whatever scene is both bald and fat, so

matt pinfield?

First part's right

thad, from a sitcom, fresh prince

cool is ineffable

cracky chan and bobby fischer

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

9 months pass...

freezer burn

Is, like, sarcasm cool?

(don't all rush at once!)

― Mark G, Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Sarcasm seems about as cool as rolling your eyes at people to show them how wrong they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSCzDykng4g

oh i'm going to press play on that for sure

^I don't detect a whiff of sarcasm in your post, and I hope you enjoy your introduction to the musical stylings of Echosmith http://s61.photobucket.com/user/Ti42/media/Smilies/smiley-face-cool-2.gif.html

that song/video is a classic example of the "I am so much better all those shallow popular ppl but I'm also so much better than all those insecure unpopular ppl who want to be popular" mentality. "I don't care what anyone thinks of me — I'm content with who I am and I don't trouble myself with notions of cool/uncool" usually just translates to "I inhabit the perfect middle-ground between cool and uncool, and I feel equally superior to people above and below me on the social ladder" which is a common mindset for people who style themselves as artists/outsiders/weirdos.

I, of course, am above it all. cool to me is not caring about not caring what other people of you (add a few more iterations as needed)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

huh... ?!

gtfo

Holy crap

demand recount

otm

???

sounds about right to me

i.e. 2/3 honest

I honestly don't see why anyone would want to be seen as "cool", or cares about it in any way. This "saying you don't care about being "cool" but secretly you do and omg the results show for it!" is an absurd notion to me.

I am probably on the wrong board tbh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmpYEJnGKLQ

chalking the result up to all those lurkers who are too cool to post to ilx

Was gonna vote no, but changed my mind when I thought about how I play stuff like "Blank Space" in my classes, and couldn't decide if I was doing it in order to appeal to my students or to seem like a cool teacher. Outside of the classroom there's a lot of things I learn about that I don't particularly care about, and I find it hard to disentangle being informed and trying to be cool.

lol @ marge again

I kinda liked that "Cool Kids" song. Is that uncool?

Iirc this has been discussed on ilx before (prob 100+ times) so I may have said this already but I think there are people who think that "coolness" comes from being an outsider, from othered-ness/transgressiveness/going against the flow, and there are ppl for whom coolness means being an "insider" and being popular, knowing what's hot rn, etc.

Does that reveal any kind of basic difference in worldview? Who the fuck knows.

I dont think that can be removed from context tho (ive said that a lot itt). some things its cool to be outside of, some its cool to be involved.

like tbrr always being the outsider as a cool aesthetic decision is p much the worst look, its a bit desperate like

eliminate the ninnies and the twits.

i care about not caring about being cool

Iirc this has been discussed on ilx before (prob 100+ times) so I may have said this already but I think there are people who think that "coolness" comes from being an outsider, from othered-ness/transgressiveness/going against the flow, and there are ppl for whom coolness means being an "insider" and being popular, knowing what's hot rn, etc.

Does that reveal any kind of basic difference in worldview? Who the fuck knows.

i think u are forgetting option #3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nqcL0mjMjw

I think the idea of "cool", at the time when it first achieved wider exposure through Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool album, was associated with staying emotionally low key and not letting all the bullshit that you had to deal with each day agitate you (i.e make you lose your cool). It was about rising above more than about transgression or popularity or whatever it means now.

'Rising above' can manifest itself as laughter when there is something to laugh about, or as preserving your dignity when others try to undermine it, or showing courage when there is something to fear, or self-possession when there's something to be angry about. 'Cool' has a much harder time with grief or elation.

do you care?

nah

Decreasingly, and yet it just keeps happening.

http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/thumbsAmmo03.jpg