hw 31

PART A:

for homework 31 i asked a family member of mine why it is that on their business card there is her first name then her maiden name then her sur name by marriage. She said that she didn't really think that it had much importance. She told me that she felt like it just sort of keep the name however minor a part of her life it is. It really had nothing to do with going against normal conviction. She also keeps it on her business card because her business has that name on it, which is where she worked before she was married.

I then asked her if it gives her any special feeling to know that it is still a legal part of her life. she said: that it helps her feel more connected to her family. "when your proud of something you like to hold it and since it was such a big part of my life before it didn't want to just throw it away"

Also she doesn't have her children use both names, and isn't called by both names at once which shows that she isn't really that serious about it.

My thoughts: This use of maiden names is something that has become increasingly popular, and most people do as a way to not feel confined. I think that is a small example of an immunity project, not her giving something to someone like her children but her taking something from her family. It is a way to keep things like names and cultures that would otherwise be forgotten stay a part of the family. And I don't see anything wrong with immunity projects like that, practically everyone does it in one sense. This type of add-on to the name is more of a tribute than anything else, some people do it to stand out, and be more open but I don't think every case is like that. The times when it is done to become more noticeable is a sub-conscious way of aggrandizing yourself. And in an increasingly more liberal and open society it is no surprise how often it happens.

Part B:

One of the methods of masking that I do in my every day life is make jokes. I often joke around with my friends and family. I am not really thinking that much about it as i do it, its sort of just an impulse I make the joke and it lightens the mood. It feels good when people laugh at a joke, it makes you stand out and feel like the center so it is obvious why so many people value comedy and comical people, that is why the joker is such a major archetype.. I think that a lot of people make jokes as a way to be accepted. I think that most people make jokes as a way to be accepted and many people try to be the funniest because it is a job and it gives them a sense of purpose. So maybe not every time but some people tell jokes as a way to feel like they have a purpose in their groups cool.

Another one of the methods that i have realized my self doing is posture. I usually don't sit very straight and often in a slouch. and people who sit in a slouch lazily often give off the impression that they don't care. What is interesting for me is that I'm not trying to act like i don't care, me not having good posture and the impression that people who don't sit straight don't care is merely a coincidence. My thinking of how posture can give off the impression of not caring leads me to believe the three sections Behavior and Body especially all work together to give off the cool personal the individual is attempting to show. Some are more connected than others but overall they all the three sections can work off of each other. also as i think of how we try these different behaviors so often that sometimes they go below our normal, conscious awareness because they is so significant in our culture. I think that everyone does some of these things even if it is not obvious to them why it is such a big part of their life since to many people their actions to be considered cool and accepted are below normal recognition.

hw 30

How does cool relate to our attempt to live in relation to this emptiness?

To all of us either in our conscious minds or sub-conscious we realize that our lives and actions in the grand scheme of things and in the relation to the rest of the universe we are relatively meaningless. Our lives as the physiologist Victor Frankl discovered are immersed into an empty void. And we desperately and often failingly try to fill it with meaning. This is what he called the existential vacuum. A website (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/frankl.html) devoted to explaining the life and theories of Frankl by a college professor states: “People today seem more than ever to be experiencing their lives as empty, meaningless, purposeless, aimless, adrift, and so on, and seem to be responding to these experiences with unusual behaviors that hurt themselves, others, society, or all three.” Basically we discover the emptiness and meaningless of our lives especially when we have nothing to preoccupy ourselves with. (Frankl defined it as Sunday neurosis, which Wikipedia defines as a form of depression resulting from awareness in some people of the emptiness of their lives once the working week is over.) and try and fill it with our perception of cool as a way to seem meaningful. I think that coolness is most immediate and popular responses to feeling empty and that is why it is so popular. As a result of obsessing over feeling meaningful we try desperately to be noticed and seem important. It happens in small ways: when you are in the elevator with another person so you instinctively take out your cell phone to act like you have something better to do and in big ways: philanthropists helping those less fortunate immensely to feel like they are making a difference in the world. However I do not believe that because we see our lives as meaningless is the only reason we are obsessed but also because we fail to accept the understanding that we are not the center of our universe. In real life unlike in space there is no sun to which all others orbit, we are all dependent and reliant on each other.

As Frankl explained we fill our misconception that we are center of the world with things that have often denoted success, like money and looks. We keep finding new things to cover these emptiness with, thus we have the action of cool. In my experience only a select few discover Sunday Neurosis consciously (becoming aware of the emptiness) and even fewer act on it. This leads me to think that people really do want to be ignorant. The majority of us rather not know the underlying human physiological chemistry and I think that is why cool and following others in its many archetypes have become so phenomenally popular. Everyone tries to take on the role of hero, some with devoting their success to helping others (philanthropists) and others by risking their lives to be needed, meaningful, and reliable (firemen.) Acting heroic helps us feel a purpose like we are working towards a greater society. We cover our insecurities of being empty by trying to be cool.

Schopenhauer, another physiologist and social theorist said that the three things that distinguish us as mortals is our broadcast sense (health beauty education), our possessions or financial ability, and our presentation to others. These work hand in hand, our financial situation allows us to take better care of our selves or buy anything from plastic surgery to clothes, and allows us to get a good education. And when these things come alive it changes other people’s perception of us we adapt to look a certain way based on our looks, and possessions. Therefore by Schopenhauer's definition of mortal, mortality in coolness is ever changeable and ever adapting to the circumstances of the mortals themselves. We strive to accomplish these tasks because they are what denote us as good and cool. Letting us feel just a little more purpose. The attempt to fall into all these categories is what pushes us to attention and the false validation of being purposeful. The emptiness sits beside us always and everyone tries to run away from it by filling his or her lives with the false validation obtained from acting heroic and important.

hw 29 merchants of cool

for homework 29 i will address the question:

Is it evil to help the corporations to manipulate the minds of young people for the sake of profit?

I have mixed feelings on this issue, i wouldn't say that the corporations that manipulate the minds of young people are exactly moral but to call them evil is a bit of a stretch. Corporations that try to sell cool simply use the most direct and effective way in the market, Television and it happens so often and in such volume that we have become wise to the manipulation. I don't consider the corporations evil just immoral so naturally i don't see those who help the corporations as evil. Athletes and musicians who sponsor the company are just trying to become known and heard. In the commercial with Grant Hill he wasn't attempting to brainwash the youth he was just making a commercial for sprite for his own personal attention. As was said in the lecture with matt ever since we were babies we have been trying to get attention and love. It is one of the pitfalls of our physiological chemistry. So is really evil for Grant Hill to want attention, it is one thing to call a corporation evil but it is another thing to accuse others of manipulating the youth when all they are doing is getting attention. I doubt that is what Grant hill had in min when he agreed to do the commercial.
Like the stars, and athletes who sponsor the product or phenomenon another way corporations get to what is cool is from the teens themselves. In the frontline video "merchants of cool" they interview the members of a company called look-look. Look-look is considered a cool hunter they go around and find what is cool now and take pictures of it for the corporations. So whether they realize it or not the teens are helping the corporations manipulate the rest of the youth. So the teens that are hunted by Look-look and given to corporations are in turn manipulating their own kind. Which begs the question how can teens be evil for sub-consciously manipulating themselves? Its immoral for the corporations to exploit the teens but its not evil for being a trend setter.

Whether or not those who help the corporations manipulate the minds of the youth know what they are doing makes a big difference. To me if you know that by staring in a commercial or singing with the company logo over your head you would be essentially controlling what the youth sees and likes then there might be some justification to call you evil, but if you are just utilizing a corporation to make a name for yourself and are unaware of the repercussions of your actions its incorrect accusation to call you evil. Those who help the corporations are they themselves being manipulated by the long arm of companies marketing strategy.

Should advertising to young people be banned? Up to what age? Or all ages?

The banning of advertisements to the youth seem to me a little extreme. To completely ban any an all advertisements is claim that will end up having a profound effect on our lives, and not all in a good way. there is no dening that some adds are blatantly wrong, racy, or manipulative like adds that tell kids to smoke, or subliminal advertisements and they should be put on a shorter leash but not all. And now more than ever advertisements and marketing play a big effect in the global economy.

Subliminal messages are really just plain wrong, they are deceiving and what some consider mind control. they lead you in and before you realize it, it has implanted something in your mind. It implants information below or near the normal threshold. so without realizing it you have been subjected to another add. According to merchants of cool teens process around 3000 adds a day (not all of the 3000 are subliminal.) Yes that's a ton of messages and information and maybe it should cut back a little but who is to say what gets cut what doesn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXcSWTb9zz8

This youtube video is a Australian news report on the use of subliminal messages during an awards ceremony. According to them it technically is illegal. one quote from the video from a teacher at the university of Sydney states that "Subliminal advertising is banded because it is a form a mind-control: it aims to influence us in ways that we are unaware of, and consequently that we could not choose to resist even if we wanted to." This type of advertising should be banned, marketing the sub-conscious is really just wrong. This I think should be banned to all ages teens, children, and adults.

In conclusion the banning of all advertising to young people is a bit too extreme because in reality adds are what helps to drive competition. If we were to ban all adds it might have a disastrous effect on the sales of companies and in turn hurting our economy. However there must be a limit, adds that affect mental health need to be banned for regard to the health of the population.

hw 28 informal research

• Anonymous,, . "wikihow." how to be cool in 7th grade. wikihow.com, Web. 7 Dec 2009. .

This article is a basic how to article compiled by a few different authors. What drew me to it was that it is specific to 7th grade. It gives various tips on how to be cool, some of which are broad and unsurprising like be confident, and practice good hygiene. It even gives links on how to be smart, the more surprising step was to be smart and keep grades up but not so much so, almost as if grades are for appearances.

This article is pretty simple and gives a well rounded group of practices to be cool. The steps are not all related, so it gives ideas and suggestions to be liked by a wide variety of people, thus making you even cooler. Together the eight steps for being cool reflect the overall consensus for being cool, nice, smart, funny, and confident. This Source is good for understanding that there are some basic principles for being cool that in most instances can be followed.

• "Cool." Urbandictionary.com. Urbandictionary , Web. 7 Dec 2009. .

This article is less of a how to and more of a what is. It gives the various definitions of cool (disregard the ones defining weather.) The most interesting part was at the top of the page, in which there were different words for cool. There are some contradictions, smart and stupid, which proves that cool varies based on values and life style.

This article is worth looking at because it gives the different situations in which cool is used, it brings up the point that cool is someone superior and is also something used as a filler word (definition 2) the abundant definitions show the underlying principles of cool... popular and what other people want to be. This source helps me deepen my understanding of how different people have different interpretations of cool.

• Fenichel, Dr. Michael. "What is "Cool"? (What's Hot? What's Not?)." 2008. Web. 7 Dec 2009.

this article is an informational article about teens and why coolness is so important. The author mentions how teens look to other teens to see what is cool. The author talks briefly on what types of things dictate whether or not you are considered cool. He also mentions self-esteem but i'm not sure how relevant that is to this assignment. At the bottom of the page the author shows the responses from the question what is cool? he asked boys and girls ages 12-18.

I think that if i were to use this article I would probably use the interviews at the bottom. Although i have my interviews which I also plan on using these show how the definition if cool changes with a span of just a year. In addition the article has a lot of information, much of which is in the interviews on what makes up cool.

• "Cool (aesthetic)." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, Dec 8 2009. Web. .

This is a wikipedia page that will probably be used by a lot of people but it is quite substantive. It is a basic overview of the word cool. it goes through the idea of cool in the sense that where are studying, like behavior and culture, but it also mentions the religious types of cool, and cool during the renaissance and the cold war. I decided to focus mostly on the sections U.S. pop culture cool and cool as a social distinction.

This page is good for finding evidence of cool it gives a ton of different references for further research, which will be very helpful in my paper. In addition if i decide to talk about the way coolness has been utilized by the media there is a really good quote by Kalle Lasn "[Cool is] a heavily manipulative corporate ethos."

hw 27 informal research interviews

interview with people on the street

For the street interviews I mostly interviewed people near madison square park and around the flat iron building. I got a few different types of people, a guy in his twenties, a husband and wife from scotland, and a business man.

the man in his twenties didn't have much time to talk but i was able to get some decent answers. i asked him if he thought we would be better off if there was no real definition of cool and if everyone is respected for their personal attributes. his response was not that lengthy but still got to the point. He simply said that yeah it might be better but that's never going to happen, only in a perfect world. He also didn't himself to be "cool" regardless of what other people thought of him he never really judged himself in that respect. Which sort of coincides with his idea of what a cool person is, to him the sole definition of cool is someone who is comfortable with themselves. This answer was expected but not a lone i didn't think it would be his only definition.

The second person I interviewed was a business man. surprisingly he thought that a cool person just meant a calm person. When i asked him if thought it would benefit us if we didn't rank ourselves he said no. From there he started to discuss how who looks cooler is based on the eye of the beholder. Person A may look cooler than person B to me, but to someone else Person B might be the cooler one. He brought up the point that Coolness is subjective in multiple ways. in one sense it is subjective because of the eye of the beholder, and in another it is subjective because is based on ranking.

I also interviewed a couple from Scotland. The First thing they said was a list of what they define as cool and in their personal experience is cool. It was not at all surprising, clothes, cars, sense of humor, and successful. I don't think it could have gotten much more standard. I guess this sense of cool is pretty universal. However when I asked them if they thought it would be better not to let coolness play a part in our lives they responded no because it excludes individualism. it keeps us from being ourselves and unique.

interview with someone not in Personal/political.

i asked someone i knew who not taking person/political or learning about being cool how they felt on the cool factor of our culture. The first thing i asked was what do you think is the difference between acceptability and coolness. To which he responded acceptability is fitting in where as cool is standing out. In some high schools you can be accepted but not really respected and the truly cool kids are treated like idols. I then asked him how important he thought the cool factor was to our culture. His answer was that for high school students and teenagers it is unequivocally one of the most important things to think about but as we get older it seems to change however he didn't have a point of reference being that he is still in high school.

Interview with family member

My first question was the same acceptance vs coolness question I asked someone not in personal/political I asked it twice because I wanted to see how the answer might change when asked to someone from another generation. Her response was unexpected, something that never even crossed my mind. Acceptance is what you actually are, you are accepted by your peers and neighbors, and family for who you are and what you are. Unlike coolness which is what you give off. Being cool is an appearance, state,or a vibe but it doesn't mean you actually are. You make an effort to be cool acceptance is more natural. cool is what you think you should be, whether or not it is accurate is irrelevant.