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.
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