Well, M. Smith, (or is that Ms. Mith?) I hope you’re not easily embarassed.
Don’t have much to add here except this:
When I was a kid I had long hair (I’m a guy) and was the "rock’n roll type. I of course hung out with kids like myself.
One day me and one of my long haired buddys were in class talking about something (I can’t remember what) when all the sudden one of the nerd kids came up to ask us “uh hey guys whats your topic gonna be for your english paper?” To which my friend and I gave each other a dubious look then my friend responded with this, uh, less than cerebral remark: “Huh, huh, whatever dude. Grow some hair…”
I don’t know why but that cracks me up every time I think about it.
Its so Fast Times at Richmond High-ish…
Mangetout maintains a list of suggested user names. Dweeby Shoes should definitely go on that list. Just my opinion, Mange. I don’t mean to lean on you.
How about cutting them a little slack? To some people the social graces don’t come as naturally as they apparently do to you.
Though why someone would want to hang out with somebody as apparently judgemental I don’t know.
What would you consider unacceptable behaviour?
(btw as a non-american the rigid social hierachy in American schools is disturbing, its no wonder some people go nuts, of course its the similar here but perhaps not quite as, apparently, biased towards overwhelming popularity…jocks, homecoming king/queen etc)
The above is based on TV and moves and as we all know the paint a perfectly accurate depiction of reality
The quote in the OP reminded me very much of physics grad school. Now, physics grad students are all pretty nerdy, by definition. However, there were two distinct catagories of grad student, defined by a simple test: when you go to a party, are you able to talk about anything besides physics?
Those of us who enjoyed socializing and using the chance to meet new people quickly learned to avoid those in the other group like the plague at social events. There’s really nothing worse than trying to hit on girls (women are very rare in physics) with someone grinding the conversation to a halt by discussing work or (worse) making nerdy physics jokes. Oy.
Effort counts for a lot. If you won’t even try to socialize, you’re a nerd.
Cool: people who other people want to be.
Uncool: people who want to be other people; people who don’t even know they should want to be other people.
Tryhard: people who want to be people who other people want to be.
Bona fides: I used to be cool.
Good question for an internet message board.
ORANGE County kids who drive BMWs and wear Armani are cool…
LA County kids who drive sh*tboxes and wear GAY clothes aren’t cool
Check out that FOX show (“THE OC”) tobe sure you are cool…emulate those dipshits and you too can be cool!
Ofcourse,you need to have money to do this…if your Dad stays home and gets a check from a trust fund, you can be cool. If your Dad is a VP ot CEO, you can be cool. If your Dad is unemployed, you areNOT cool.
There, simpleisn’t it?
Well for one thing, cool people aren’t bitter and jealous of fictional characters in a TV show.
Another thing, “coolness” isn’t about how much money you have or how you dress. Dorks think it is. That’s why you can dress them up but you can’t take them out.
Let’s see…
-Stupid, offensive or inappropriate comments (unless they’re funny)
-Excessive bitching and complaining
-Wet blanketing (ie wanting to leave the party early)
-Sausaging (interupting someone elses conversation with a woman with clumsy, lame flirting)
-Corniness
-Sloppy drunkenness (ie violent, sick, requiring medical attention, etc)
-Excessive stupidity (if you don’t know, keep your mouth shut and learn)
-Annoyingness (“hey guys!..guys…guys…GUYS!!..HEY GUYS!”
-Staring fights with people twice your size and expecting the group to back you up (you want to be a baddass, pick fights you can handle by yourself)
-Excessive screwing up (ie leaving your license at home when we go out to a bar)
-Anal retentiveness
-Monopolizing the conversation with topics no one cares about (ie Star Trek)
-Being a tool (syncophantic behavior towards people who disdain you in hopes of winning their favor and elevating yourself to their status.)
-Being obnoxious
Once you get out of high school, the whole concept of “cool” or “uncool” seems ridiculous. Some of the “cool” people I disdained in high school have turned out to be fascinating, fun people. They probably were in high school as well, but because I was so caught up in the cool/uncool trap I couldn’t realize that.
I pick my friends not on how cool or geeky they are, but on whether they’re interesting, clever, kind and fun. I also prefer that my friends have at least rudimentary social graces.
My board president at work is a total social climber. He’s very caught up in knowing the right people and belonging to the right clubs, in other words, being the upper-class equivalent of cool. He’s so very obvious about it, though, that it makes him look pathetic. Trying to fit in with the cool kids becomes ludicrous once you’re past 18.
What do cool people talk about?
I haven’t the faintest idea 
If I told you. . .I’d have to kill you.
They talk about how to post links correctly. You’re obviously missing out.
(dumb answer #2)
Agree with a lot of this, but it’s mostly common sense. The bar/ID example reminds me of when there was a group of us in Germany, years before the wall and fence line came down, who went to Berlin. As we approached the Helmstedt border crossing, two-hundred miles from home, one girl realized she had forgotten her passport. That was definitely not cool, because we had to go back for it. All of us.
As for the Star Trek comment, well, msmith turns out to be quite the Trekker himself. No cite, just do a search for “all posts started by him”, which we can now do, and it’ll be about the first thing you see. msmith you of all people should realize…maybe some of the people the nerds are talking to do care about it, else how could they monopolize the conversation?
What do you mean by “corniness”? I didn’t know people used the word anymore.
Mistakes happen but if the same girl is always the one who forgets her passport or ID, it definitely becomes uncool.
But it pretty much all is common sense. You want to relate to other people who share similar interests. But you want to do it because you are actually interested, not because you think it’s the thing to do. You can’t act cool. You have to BE cool.
Watching reruns of Star Trek is fine. Showing up to work wearing Vulcan ears and a uniform is not cool.
Being “too cool” isn’t cool either. You still want to relate to the common man.
Stupid humor that isn’t funny. Like “Screetch” from Saved by the Bell.
Yeah. Because mocking people is the height of proper social behavior.
The “cool” kids as I remember them from high school and/or college were never particularly well behaved. Especially in college. They ran around screaming drunk at 3 am, puked on other people’s belongings, were rude to anyone not quite cool enough, and sat around mocking people at the top of their lungs.
That strikes me as being a lot more embarrassing public behavior than when a few of my friends and I sat and talked about D&D in normal indoor speaking voices.
Oh well aren’t we honoured that you’ve condescended to speak to us mere mortals.
(I’m hoping that was tongue in check, but I’m not sure)
I’ve got a gay shirt. 's got “Thrill, Pride: King’s Island Pride Night” in rainbow letters on the front. And no you can’t have it. Yes YOU. I saw you staring at it with longing.
Coolness is something you develop gradually (if it doesn’t come naturally–I’m not sure if it really does in anyone, but whatever). I used to be a total unsociable geek. I eventually decided (in about 8th grade or so) that I wanted to develop some real social skills and become, if not cool, at least someone people wanted to talk to. The next few years were a gradual learning process–I observed all the things sociable people did, and my behavior gradually got more sociable. I developed social skills over a period of a couple of years, and I now consider myself fairly social and at least a little ‘cool’ (I’m a high school senior, and I’ve had teachers and classmates comment to myself and my parents and friends that ‘it seems that everyone likes me’–which I think is decent qualification).
There are a few different kinds of ‘cool’, too. There are people who are popular and high up on the social ladder, and pull all kinds of nasty shit and get away with it; people who other people want to be; people who other people want to look like; people who other people want to be seen hanging out with; and (the one that I think I fit into at least somewhat) people who are cool because people like being with them (less of a popularity thing than a personality thing, I think).
What do cool people talk about? Some cool people talk about themselves. Some cool people talk about clothes. Some cool people talk about music. Some cool people talk about drugs.
Find your own groove. Develop your social skills if you feel you need to. Say hi to random people…meet new people, talk to everyone. Talk a lot, but listen a lot too. Learn to read how interested people are in what you’re saying, and use that skill once you have it: when you talk to people, try to determine how interested they are in what you’re saying, and if they seem bored/uninterested then switch to another topic.
Looking cool helps too. Hairdressers often have good suggestions for how to make yourself look better/cooler; the good (and creative) ones have a good spatial imagination that they often use to determine what kind of haircut would look good on you, and that kind of imagination and ‘hipness’ can extend to other parts of your look. If you know cool-looking people, ask them how they think you can look cool. (This tells them you think they’re cool, and since they’ll feel better about themselves they’ll probably dish out good advice.)
That’s enough blabbering from me…
I’m sorry,I meant “GAP” , not “GAY”…GAP clothes are not cool! (Ask any teenage girl)!