What does cool mean?

The word "cool" is the most representative and important word in teen pop's ci in recent years. Contemporary teenagers will say "cool" when expressing their appreciation for someone or a certain behavior, and they will say "cool" when they appreciate it to the extreme. So, what exactly does "cool" mean?

"COOL" is the Chinese transliteration of English cool. The original meaning of COOL is cold, which became a street catchword for American teenagers in the 1960s. At first, it refers to a cold, anti-mainstream behavior or attitude, and later it refers to all people and things that can be praised. In the mid-1970s, this word was introduced into Taiwan Province Province and translated into "cool" by people in Taiwan Province Province, meaning "chic with a little indifference". In the 1990s, it was introduced to the mainland, quickly replacing the word "chic" with similar meaning and becoming the most popular compliment among teenagers. The meaning of this word has been enriched in the process of circulation, and now its meaning can be "good" in a broad sense, not just "a little indifference in chic". Although "cool" means "good", "cool" in teenagers' minds is different from "good" in the traditional sense. If they praise a person as "cool", then this person is definitely maverick and full of personality, regardless of his dress, words and deeds, or spiritual temperament. It is definitely not the simple, enthusiastic and clever "good" that the older generation appreciates. "maverick, full of personality" is the essence of "cool" and the real reason why contemporary teenagers favor and appreciate "cool"

As we all know, China's educational circles have long pursued a set of standardized and stylized educational models. Under this educational model, many teenagers lack independent personality and individual consciousness, always passively obey the collective and organization, make selfless contributions to society, and dissolve themselves in the group. The more education teenagers receive, the more knowledge they have, and more and more people will speak for themselves. Teenagers' personality and ideas and opinions derived from personality are gone, and their independent thinking ability and innovation ability are greatly affected. Fortunately, our education has become an indispensable part of modern education. At the same time, contemporary society has also given great tolerance to individuality. On the basis of recognizing, facing and respecting individuality, dynamic suffixes such as "flying" and "dancing" are often used to render individuality. In this case of advocating individuality, individuality has become the goal pursued by contemporary young people. They advocate the independence, development and perfection of individuality, self-design, self-selection and self-realization, and their individuality consciousness and individuality consciousness are greatly enhanced.

Therefore, in the eyes of contemporary teenagers, as long as they show a unique personal style, even if this style does not conform to traditional aesthetic habits and standards, it should be beautiful. In their view, this style is not only manifested in a person's ideas, spiritual temperament, but also in a person's dress, words and deeds. So when Han Han, a teenager, gives up his studies and lashes out at the current education, teenagers will call him "cool". When the singer Nicholas Tse appears at the concert with a cold and arrogant face, teenagers will also call him "cool". "Cool" has become the highest expression of teenagers' appreciation of "personality beauty".

Because "cool" is highly respected, pretending to be cool has become a fashion move for contemporary teenagers. The popularity of "cool style" makes "cool" inevitably become a popular custom. This kind of "cool" only pays attention to external performance. As for those who pretend to be "cool", they may not have any corresponding ideas and concepts in their hearts. They want more attitudes and fashion shows. A teenager pursues strangeness in hairstyle, clothes or speech, trying to make himself different, and then winning the praise of "cool". On the one hand, this phenomenon reflects the immaturity of some teenagers' minds, but on the other hand, it also shows that "cool", which represents the beauty of personality, has a very heavy weight in the minds of teenagers.

There is also a word "IN" composed of English letters, which is also quite popular among teenagers in recent years. Borrowing English directly means "fashion, popularity and tolerance". "IN" is the shortest and most powerful expression of fashion and popularity in English. It is different from the usual expression "fashion", emphasizing the fashion that can be seen at any time and everywhere; Closer to life and more colloquial. Contemporary teenagers often use the word "IN" when praising someone or something. If a young man says to you, "You are good", it means "You are good" or "You are fashionable". The word opposite to "in" is "out", which means "out of date", "foreigner" (layman, ignorant) and "old-fashioned". If a young man sincerely says to you, "Comrade, you're out," that means, "You can't keep up with the situation. It's time to change your mind.

Appreciation of "IN" shows that "fashion" has become an important orientation of contemporary teenagers. In other words, in the eyes of teenagers, as long as it is fashionable and beautiful, it should be their goal. Dyeing colored hair and wearing brand-name sports shoes is a fashionable way to dress up, dyeing colored hair and wearing brand-name sports shoes is a beautiful way to communicate, and texting on mobile phones and QQ is a fashionable way to communicate. If a young man is judged as "outdated" and "unfashionable" by others, he will have a lot of troubles and pains, because he feels that being called "outdated" and "unfashionable" is equivalent to saying that he is not beautiful or ugly.

There is an important difference between "fashion" and "fashion". "Fashion" has the characteristics of being trendy, avant-garde, unique and transient, which is not prepared by a wide range of popular culture. What is "fashionable" is often something that appears and is willing to be fresh. This is its trendy nature. "Fashion" often walks in front of fashion trends and leads the development direction of fashion trends, which is its avant-garde. People who pursue "fashion" consciously distinguish themselves from other social groups psychologically, which is their life; The survival time of "fashionable" things is often short and fleeting, which is its brevity. So "fashion" and "fashion" are interrelated and mutually exclusive. When a phenomenon or an article moves from fashion to wider popularity, it also becomes the object of fashion sublation. For example, when the online buzzwords "dinosaur" and "frog" just came out and were used by a few people, they were willing to have fashionable characteristics; But when they are gradually used by most people and widely popular, they lose the characteristics of fashion, but only the characteristics of fashion.

Curiosity and innovation have always been the nature of teenagers, and the characteristics of "fashion" coincide with their nature, so "fashion" naturally becomes something they admire and love. It can be said that teenagers' pursuit of fashion has never stopped. Throughout the various periods after the reform and opening-up, from listening to Teresa Teng in bell-bottoms in the late 1970s and early 1980s, to listening to rock dancing in the mid-1980s, and then to online chatting and extreme sports in the late 1990s, teenagers often lead the fashion trend. Compared with previous times, fashion plays a more important role in the life of contemporary teenagers. Contemporary teenagers are a new generation of teenagers who have grown up under the rapid development of market economy. Due to the spread of consumerism, the hype of mass media on fashion, and the unusually rapid change of fashion, teenagers have a strong desire for fashion consumption. Fashion clothing, fashion jewelry, fashion daily necessities, fashion communication tools, fashion computers, etc. Are their targets. For example, mobile phone is an important communication tool in our time. Due to the continuous development of technology and the continuous creativity of manufacturers, the functions and styles of mobile phones are constantly updated, and fashionable new mobile phones are constantly emerging. Teenagers are often the first people to own fashionable mobile phones. From the passion of teenagers' fashion consumption, we should clearly feel how beautiful "in"-"fashion" is in teenagers' minds.

There is also a word called "hyun", which appears later than "cool" and "IN". Is a popular word born with the rise of mobile phones. Its original meaning is used to describe the bright colors of color screen mobile phones. However, with the continuous spread of this word, its meaning has undergone profound changes. Nowadays, we often hear teenagers say, "Show your confidence, show your style" and "Show your personality, and you are the most dazzling one". In these words, "dazzle" does not mean "colorful and dazzling", so what does "dazzle" mean?

In "showing off your self-confidence and your elegant demeanor", "showing off" is more appropriate to be interpreted as "display and propaganda"; In Show Your Personality, You Are the Best, "dazzle" is more appropriately interpreted as "striking". However, whether it is "display, publicity" or "eye-catching", it expresses such an aesthetic concept of teenagers; Express yourself, publicize yourself and attract others' attention. This is beauty.

There is a great contrast between this aesthetic concept and the traditional aesthetic concept. In the traditional aesthetic concept of China people, tenderness, kindness, implication and profundity are beauty; Bold and outspoken publicity is not only not beautiful, but also may lead to disaster. As the old saying goes: "The wood in the forest is beautiful, and the wind will destroy it;" When piled up on the shore, the water will surge; The line is higher than the public, and the public will not do it. This is the truth. So for thousands of years, people in China have been very reserved and modest. Even if they have great technology, they won't show it easily. Even if they do well, they will say, "If you don't do well, please give me more advice. "In this respect, western culture is different from our aesthetic concept. Westerners advocate self-expression. Even if a person has no skills, he should show them all. Even if some things are not perfect, he will publicize his achievements without shame. Over the years, with the continuous expansion of China's foreign exchanges and cooperation and the continuous development of economic globalization, this western aesthetic concept has profoundly influenced today's China society, especially the young people in China. In the eyes of contemporary China teenagers, it is no longer demeaning to say that a person is outspoken in order to attract attention. Instead, it shows a person's courage and confidence. " Hyun can be appreciated by teenagers, which is directly related to the change of this aesthetic mentality. So we can see that at the 2004 Olympic Games, 44-year-old Wang Yifu just shook his fist and waved and walked off the field calmly. 2 1 year-old Liu Xiang ran wildly with open arms, eager to embrace the whole world. In an interview with reporters, Wang Yifu expressed his gratitude to the motherland for cultivating his leadership, while Liu Xiang said that he "wanted to show himself very early". Behind the words of different celebration gestures are the great differences in concepts and sentences between contemporary young people and their predecessors.

It is precisely because they want to "show off" themselves that today's teenagers not only dare to run for the class league, but also dare to run for the "school flower" and "school grass", and also dare to talk about Kan Kan in front of the examiner of the employer and count their own advantages and achievements. In their view, this is an era that calls for publicity, and this is an era that needs publicity. Implicit euphemism may also be a kind of beauty, but they appreciate the beauty of self-confidence and publicity!