Homework 36-Triangle Partner Help

Kate,
I really like your intro paragraph, it was extremely catching and the use of the quote from Shakespeare tied back your main idea. Second, I like how throughout your whole paper, you explain the different criteria’s in being cool, and the standards we try to follow in order to represent ourselves as cool in somebody else’s eyes. You also include how emptiness plays into the whole idea of being cool, what strangers believe cool is, and how our culture maps teach us to be cool.
I think that what you started to write about Jakob’s idea, “we identify people as cool because we project our insecurities on to them” would be very interesting to read about, especially what you think about his idea. I believe that what Jakob is saying is true, because we are always putting others down in order to boost our self-esteem. Bullies are always picking on others because even though they have a tough exterior, their interior is broken and crumbling inside. However Jakob argues that people who appear “cool” to us are everything we’re not. If someone had a low self-esteem, they would find someone with confidence and poise cool, because they are what we look to be. We are always trying to be somebody we’re not, because we are jealous of what other people are.
One thing I think you should include is some more comments from other strangers we interviewed on the street, because having different perspectives and ideas seems to work in your paper. Also, talk about your cultural map. What does your family expect you to act like, what rules do you have set to follow?
Overall, I really enjoyed reading your paper and can’t wait to read the final draft.
-Rachel

Yu Xi,
I really like your intro paragraph; I loved how you connected The Bachelorette to theories of cool. You definitely tied cool back to our current day society. I also really liked your thesis; it summed up your main idea, that there are several different types of cool, rather than one main definition. Another thing I liked is how you incorporated Mr. Fanning into your paper. It was definitely nice to see that someone connected his discussion with us to their paper.
As I was saying on Kate’s blog, I think that people try to fit into these “labels” or “boxes” because we always want to be something we are not. We look at other people, and think “hey I want to be like them, I like their style or their attitude”. We area always trying to improve ourselves, always trying to take what we are and changing it into something we are not. As you touched upon, we use our culture maps as a basis of our structure for being cool, but combine maps from several different people in order to create that fits us, that person we want to be rather than the person we are meant to be.
One thing I think you should include is some more comments from people interviewed on the street, because having different perspectives and ideas can show an opposing view to what you think. Also, talk about how corporations play into the lives and teenagers and their search to be cool.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading your paper and can’t wait to read the final draft.
-Rachel