What Is Cool? Interpreting the Idea in The Cool Kids by Katy Waldman

What is cool? I still remember when I was a kid, I always try to be difference compare with other kids, in that time, to be cool is to be different. David Brooks, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, in his article “How Cool Works in America Today”, he tried to find what cool meant in this country. From his research, cool is not only a style, but also has social meaning. David Brooks gives us some people he believes to be cool, like Miles Davis , an American jazz trumpeter, Billie Holiday, an American jazz musician, Audrey Hepburn, a British actress, Jimi Hendrix, an American rock guitarist. The cool person has some same character like stoical, emotionally controlled and great ability to deal with hard situation. The cool people not concern

Despite all the formal training and experience in this field, Twenge herself is a part of the target audience. Twenge is a mother of three who states “they’re not yet old enough to display the traits of IGen teens, but I have already witnessed firsthand just how ingrained new media are in their young lives.” Throughout the article she provides both personal and statistical information to enhance her argument and support her findings. These Range from multiple surveys conducted throughout the country, including one that had been performed on undergraduates at San Diego State University. An interview with a teen girl from Texas had also been included into the work, avoiding a bombardment of the reader with evidence and numerical data. By providing this break from purely logos argumentation she allows the reader to build an emotional connection with the work; as well as, create a bridge between author and reader. The way she presents the statistical information in her article is by providing the reader with multiple surveys and studies that show this new generational data of how teens are becoming less socially interactive in public. while presenting her information she does show that there

In an essay published in the New Yorker in May 1999, entitled “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies,” writer David Denby analyzes movies targeted towards teenagers and the stereotypes associated with them. He begins his essay by describing the archetypal characters in high school genre films: the vapid popular girl and her athletic male counterpart, and the intellectual outsider and her awkward male counterpart. He then describes the reality of teen life, and compares it to the experience depicted in these films. Next, he analyzes the common theme that the geeky characters are the protagonists, and suggests there are such because of their writer's personal experience and a history of geeks being ostracized. Finally, Denby analyzes the tropes in

The poem “We Real Cool” is a very powerful poem, although expressed with very few words. To me, this poem describes the bottom line of the well known “ghetto life”. It describes the desperate and what they need, other than the usual what they want, money. Without actually telling us all about the seven young men, it does tell us about them. The poem tells of the men’s fears, their ambitions, and who they think they are, versus who they really are.

"We Real Cool" is a short, yet powerful poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that sends a life learning message to its reader. The message Brooks is trying to send is that dropping out of school and roaming the streets is in fact not "cool" but in actuality a dead end street.

The poem 'We Real Cool' by Gwendolyn Brooks is a stream of the thoughts of poor inner city African-Americans who have adopted a hoodlum lifestyle. Though many can have different interpretations of this poem, it is fair to look at the life and career or the works and influences of Gwendolyn Brooks.

In Rushkoff’s film, The Merchants of Cool, he rhetorically questions if “teenagers even have a culture to call distinctly their own.” In the late 1990’s when the documentary was made, the implication was that they do not. However, with the internet’s advancements and the accessibility of communication with massive amounts of people, teenagers today can form authentic cultures that are not contaminated by the corporate media.

While reading Too Cool for School by Ellis Cose I have became aware of various aspects of my ‘schooling’ experience. I realized that I may not have had the best schooling experience, but I never pushed up against the system to get any better. Throughout my life I have attended over 10 schools some very high end others bottom of the barrel. Like Cose, I always knew my intellectual abilities, but I was always so dissatisfied with my situation I didn't make the best of it. Instead of soaking up as much knowledge as possible and making a lesson out of my situation I became complacent. I started to slack off and allow myself to become stagnant to what I knew my abilities were. I allowed myself to be a product of my environment when I should I have

It is sad to see how these teenagers think of themselves as being cool because of the activities they choose to do, when they each see how it is making them live a shorter life and none of them are doing a thing about it. Life is worth more than feeling cool. Proverbs says, “Since they hated knowledge…the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them” (Proverbs 1:29a, 32). The teenagers in “We Real Cool” have an image of their selves as being cool on the outside because of the badly behaved things they are taking part in and want others to think them as being cool. These teenagers want to think that they are cool for doing the things they do, but they know that the destructive life they live will soon be a factor to their deaths. Brooks demonstrates in “We Real Cool” that even though people acknowledge their own behavior and think of themselves as being cool, their destructive ways will be a part of their short lives and none of their coolness will ever matter again.

What is “cool?” Does it have to do with temperature or someone’s personality? Is it a slang word or a proper English word? And most importantly, how is it decided that something or someone is cool? Cool is a word that can have many different meanings, can be used as slang or proper English, and can be subjective when it comes to using it. I use the word in a couple of ways, but not all are in the Oxford English Dictionary, likewise, the Dictionary recognizes meanings of cool that I did not even know.

Pop Culture has a great impact on our society of today. The main problem with pop culture is that some people think that it can dumb us down, and also that it promotes violence in today’s youth. It could actually do the exact opposite. Pop Culture is just another thing to learn about in life. It could actually help us think more complex to figure out what is going to happen in the next episode in your favorite TV show. It could even have the youth reading at an early age just to figure out what is happening in the magazines, and to be able to text their friends. Also it could help us learn more about the issues in today’s world through the use of browsing the internet. The main issues that will be covered through this paper are: how modern TV can enlighten the audience, the use of social media in political movements, and the effects on how pop culture can educate the youth of today.

Do you ever look back on your good old high school yearbook pictures and say to yourself “what in the world was I thinking?” You often catch yourself wanting to hide it or rip the picture frame off the wall that your mom once proudly put up. You find it hanging on relative’s refrigerators, or being the topic of laughter on holidays. Trends throughout the years often change. Many of these changes happen quickly. One week something is “in” then the next week it is totally “out”. Imagine having to go back to school 10-15 years after graduating and trying your best to fit and blend in with the teenagers of that time period. In the movie, 21 Jump Street, that is what they attempted to do. The movie is starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. It’s about two police officers who are forced to relive their high school days. They are assigned to go undercover as high school students to prevent the outbreak of a new synthetic drug and capture its supplier. An “honor roll geek” and “athletic underachiever” work together to fight crime and form an inseparable friendship while doing so. The police officers are forced to gain the mindset of a teenager. They have to learn how to fit in and interact with others during that time period. They realize that some of the things that were once “cool” are no longer as cool as they once thought they were. This movie features various different stereotypes in high school. Styles have changed, along with attitudes, and new clicks have formed. The

What pops into your mind first when you think of popular culture in today’s day and age? The latest dirt on celebrities or the latest iPhone release? The latest controversial issue or the latest iTunes hit? Regardless, pop culture encompasses all four of these concepts and many more, which consume the world we live in each and every day. Think about education. At first thought, your mind may not make the connection between the newest Taylor Swift song and the highest ACT score, but the linkage between the two becomes undeniable when you dive deeper. Ponder this: each day millions of kids walk into school buildings across the United States, each of them glued to a little slice of pop culture, a.k.a. their phone. And each day these millions

“For most of the twentieth century, [popular culture] has been denigrated by intellectuals of all ideological stripes as either meaningless escapism or a dangerous narcotic” (Cullen 2). Popular culture is a form of escapism; however, I would argue against those intellectuals calling it meaningless, because, as we have also learned from Cullen, the elites will reject new forms of popular culture. Returning to escapism, an example we have seen is in comic books. Adolescent boys would turn to comics as a source of escapism. For example, lower-class second-generation Jewish immigrants, searching for their place to fit in society, created Superman. Their comics appealed to young boys, in a post-Depression era, with

Popular culture is generally believed to be comprised of a variety of elements. For example, popular culture covers the most contemporary and instant aspects of our lives. These aspects can often show the characteristics of rapid change, especially in today’s highly technological and informative world in which, people are highly influenced by the universal media. Certain standards of behaviour and common beliefs are reflected in pop culture. Because of its cohesion, pop culture both influences and reflects people’s daily life. Moreover, brands can reach iconic pop status. However, these aspects are not constant and may change rapidly. (Abbott and Sapsford, 1987).