What’s Coolness, Really?

This article has been submitted by Sahil Goel for the CLATGyan Blog Post Writing Competition. If you think this article is a good read, ‘Like’ this article on Facebook (the button is at the bottom of this piece) or post a comment using the ‘comments’ section below.

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In the 21^st century, where room temperature has reached new heights owing to the effect of Global Warming, every young wants to be ‘cool’. After all, being ‘cool’ is the easiest way to fit in the society. THIS obsession for coolness has to the heights where our hearts have frozen and just perform the clinical function of beating. There’s no more a room for sensitivity and feelings in our hearts.

The meaning of ‘Coolness’ has been perverted. It is regretful that the youth has accepted the practices of making fun of others, insulting others and self boasting, as ‘cool’ practices. Such ‘Cool’ or ‘Kool’ or ‘Kewl’ acts are actually ‘Pseudo-Cool’. What makes such Pseudo-Coolness more popularly accepted as coolness is the latest fad of Social Networking. This vogue has become even more dominant due to the presence of internet pages like ‘How to make your life awesome on Facebook?’, all thanks to sites like wikihow.com, which happen to have earned over a thousand ‘Likes’.

It is both, funny and shameful that most of the people on social networking websites are ready to insult others or taunt someone or self boast at the drop of a hat. It seems to be more of a pandemic disease than just a trend. One funny trend is that of uploading overtly edited photos and self-boasting through cool status messages. What adds to the humour is the fact that most of these status messages are copy-pasted! Accompanied to this there is an amusing competition among people to get the maximum number of ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’. And the one who wins this competition is awarded with unfathomable egos. My brain cells almost shrunk to the size of an atom on hearing that youngsters spend hefty amounts of their parents’ hard earned money to shoot for a perfect profile picture for their Facebook Profile. It is really saddening that in a country where Lakhs sleep empty stomach, Lakhs are spent on stuff as insignificant as profile pictures.

How can I forget the latest viral, that is ‘Confession’ pages. These pages are the safest to post crap about someone to publicly insult or defame them. And Mr. X writes an allegation- not a confession against Mr. Y and Mr.Z, a friend of Mr.Y will then abuse Mr. X. Hence it becomes an abusive chain—a vicious cycle!

Yet another latest trend is that of debating/arguing on every issue. It is cool, real cool and I encourage it. This reflects that the youth is actually concerned. But debating for the heck of it, i.e. while knowing that you are wrong or just to belittle somebody’s views while implicitly agreeing to the person or just debating without knowing what one is saying, to put it in a nutshell, being the Devil’s Advocate is actually ‘Pseudo-Cool’. This trend is dangerous because it is making youth follow the immoral ideals because such ‘Pseudo-Cool’ ideals are easy, humorous (insensitive humour), luring and hence have every reason to be certified ‘cool’.

The reason why I am linking ‘coolness’ to all this crap is this observation. The most ill-mannered, insensitive, ruthless and ‘naughty’ (this is what he calls himself) boy in our school has maximum number of friends (online and real) and even greater ‘fan following’ (what he believes and even I found it to be true). And another person who is the most humble, respectful towards opposite sex, mannered and helpful has the least number of friends (online and real). This is not enough, when I once asked a person why he liked the former and disliked the latter, this is what he replied:

“Brother, he (I person) is so cool. The jokes he cracks are so funny. Girls are crazy about him. And Z (II person) is so damn boring. I wish he got a life.”

It was this day that I identified that the culprit was the desire to be cool or I shall say pseudo-cool!

Real Coolness

This is a very lethal virus and an antidote should be found quickly. Somewhere our education system is lacking and we all are falling prey to such disharmonious trends. It shall be noted that no real coolness lies in insulting or saying mean things to anyone. Rather it is cool to defend the one who is being ridiculed. No real coolness lies in uploading pictures that are overtly edited to present you beautiful. It is just like a thick layer of makeup that has been fixed. Real coolness lies in natural beauty of one’s character. No real coolness lies in abusing, ruthlessness, authoritativeness or insensitivity. In fact, it is cool to stay calm, polite, helpful, caring and respectful to all.

It might be argued that the practice that I suggest for coolness would draw out humour from our lives because every humour involves some transgression. I clarify that I am not against the use the friendly jokes and healthy humour. That is perfectly fine. But it should be taken care that such jokes do not hurt your friend or threaten his dignity. A group of friends casually joking with or upon each other is completely healthy. What I deplore is intended insult.

So
Keep Smiling and Stay Cool! 🙂