Too Cool for School

I definitely think that people around me are strongly influenced by the media standard of "cool," however, I would also argue that I am surrounded by people who do not allow the media standard of "cool" to shape their lives nearly as much. I notice that people are very strongly influenced by the media standard of cool in the area of technology, particularly with cell phones. It literally seems like every week a new version of a cell phone comes out claiming that it is different from all the rest, and it almost degrades other brands to a lower standard. Eventually, a new phone will come out that will top this one and it will be "the cool phone," while the others will be considered old and out of style. It is exactly the same as Ipods. In my opinion, Ipods are like humans. They started out simple and evolved into something so complex. At first, the only thing Ipods could do was play music and everyone thought that was the greatest thing ever, and now, Ipods are a phone, music player, camera, internet source, and more all in one. The human brain used to have such a small capacity that survival insticts were the only concept they could grasp. And millions of years later, what humans are capable of is absolutely mindboggling. The difference between humans and Ipods is that Ipods evolved with excessive velocity. People are also strongly influenced by the media's standard of "cool fasion." Say the geekiest kid in school comes to class one day wearing short shorts with thick rubber boots that come up past the knee. Everyone will torment her. But if Kesha comes out wearing that everyone will see it as a revolution in fashion and it will become a popular trend, because the media follows Kesha, and Kesha is famous. The media's standard of "cool" is apparently to be a drunken slut, and I am not sure if it has always been that way but it definitely is today and it is so influential on teenagers. Kids as young as twelve are acting totally inappropriately because that is what their role models are doing. And it is all because the media is potraying that behaviour to be cool. But on the other hand, I believe I know people who are true to themselves and do not allow the media to control their decisions nearly so much. Some people will just wear what would be considered the most ugly outfit of all time out in public because it is what they are comfortable with, and they do not care if the media doesn't like it because it works for them. I think people like that are stronger than everyone else, because the only real way to be different is to truly not care what other people think. There are less people like that out there than most people are aware of, especially with teenagers. Because with teenagers, often one of the most important things is to meet the media's standard of "cool."