From one to ten, how cool are you? How did you get that way? What makes you think you are or aren't cool? And who decides this?

If cool is the opposite of geek, then one.

I am not a geek because I think of a geek as computer and techno savvy, but I am not cool either. I’m not sure what I am, but I’m not cool.

Being cool has a lot to do with what is cool for a particular group you are a part of and how they view you based on what’s cool for them. So based on what is cool for some of my friends I am certainly cool. Wear certain types of clothes, bags, and shoes; speak various languages, have traveled extensively, have studied abroad, have had great jobs, have done TV commercials, etc. So yeah, cool I think, for them and me.

I think geeks are cool. Gotta love’em.

I wouldn’t classify myself as cool but I hope I’m interesting. I think people tend to find me so. I’m also a massive geek :-P

Eh, doesn’t matter. Some people think I’m cool ‘cause they think I have funny stories or that I’m brave or whatever. I tend to not wonder if I’m cool or not. I guess I’m not.

LOL… I don’t think I’m “cool” at all. I see “cool” as people who are readily accepted and approved of in society. I’m the anti-thesis of that kind of “cool.” I’m very quirky in a good way!

In school I was a total dork.
I became quiet and self-loathsome, and that seemed to help.
Becoming quite good at work boosted my confidence, which helped more.
So, High School 3, when I married 7. Now? My kids say 3 again, but they are constantly shocked by how cool my tastes are, and how up I am on technology and street life.

I honestly have no idea whether or not I am cool, I have never given it much thought. My kids would certainly not classify me as anything close to cool I know that for sure!

I’m with Simone, I don’t give a F if I’m cool….although I’m probably not anyway.

Last time I checked, my coolness rating was over 40 megafonzies.

I was thinking more along the psychological aspect of the self-esteem part of coolness, i.e., why do you think you are or aren’t?

Edit: Dom – you are tres cool indeed. How have you been – I haven’t “seen” you here in a while – have I been missing your posts or have you been busy?

See, I have gotten progressively cooler as the years have gone by. In middle school, I was actively unpopular and pretty socially awkward. In high school, I was invisible and, damn, did I work hard to be invisible. In college, I became cool. It was a very surreal experience for me and I can definitely say that college cool is way less shallow than high school cool. I was cool because I could interact with many different social groups. I made people laugh. People thought I was friendly. Things about me that would have caused ridicule in high school became interesting and unique and I think this was because a number of people liked me so much. For example, when I went LARPing, people were fascinated. At least 20 people stopped me to tell me about the movie Role Models because it had LARPing in the end. In high school, people were a little weirded out when I started dyeing my hair. In college, people would request colors and ask if they could help me dye my hair.

I am also very geeky. As silly as this may sound, being a female geek makes me a lot cooler in my geeky social groups than if I was a male geek because by virtue of the fact that there are so few of us specifically sci-fi and gaming geeks I am cool. The fact that I like these things of my own accord, and not because a boyfriend got me into them makes me cooler. The fact that I am neither painfully shy nor super possessive as so many gaming females are makes me cool.

The whole cool thing is weird. I’d say I rate anywhere from a 6 to a 10 on the scale depending on my audience. :P

I think what some may consider cool about me is that I don’t live to impress and I don’t judge people by what others say of their character. I let their behavior towards me determine if it will be someone worth knowing or not.

You tell me.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard That was funny – but probably not one of your coolest moments. I’m sure it was a wild night though, eh?

Your scale ain’t big enough!

Whatever @redfeather‘s score is, I’m about 2 points higher.

I’m so not cool, but not super nerdy either. I think of cool people as being smooth, chill, and really “with the times”. gawd I can’t believe I used that expression I’m too clumsy and awkward to be cool.

Hey, @desiree333 – I used “hip”. I guess I’m not very cool then.

If I ever was “cool” I’m certainly not anymore. I’m middle aged. How cool can middle aged people be? And what’s a ten? Jack Kerouac? What’s the scale here? Yes, I know, I’m showing my age. But I’m also using him because he was “cool” before cool was a mass produced commodity.

@zen Oh well, we can fail at being cool together.

@lillycoyote You may not be familiar with our president – but he’s 86 and considered very cool. Really – true story.

@lillycoyote Not many people can top Kerouac, regardless of the time period.

@FutureMemory He is kind of the gold standard for cool, in my opinion, I was just adding the time period as a caveat because I thought maybe some people wouldn’t understand that.

@zen I have been busy traveling a lot lately, it’s true, but I still come here regularly :)

I suppose I should answer this seriously as well: to me, being cool was always more than just liking whatever is considered cool (even when I was younger): cool clothes, cool music, cool slang terms, etc. Sure, maybe some of the things I liked matched up with generally accepted ideas of what was “cool” for my generation, but that was never what made me think I was cool, even if people said I was because of those things. And sometimes people would say I was cool for liking something that was more unusual for someone like me, such as classical music or Latin or geography.

But the things that really make me think I’m “cool” are when people say I’m a “cool guy”; it isn’t about cool associations as much as it is about being down to earth, easy to talk to, friendly, fun to be around—an overall pleasant person. I mean, people have told me I am all those things and I certainly try to be, so that does give me the idea that I’m at least somewhat “cool”...

@lillycoyote I should break out On the Road tonight :)

@zen this picture surfaced the same night, if that’s any indication.

@FutureMemory Maybe you should. I certainly don’t think re-reading Kerouac would be time wasted.

42 (which is to say 1, for making a nerdy reference)

I have no fucking clue any more. My students seem to think I’m cool, so I’ll go with that. Also, my mom thinks I’m cool.

Ain’t a scale been made can measure my cool.

It is what it is.

At face value I am a 2….but when you see my album collection and amplifiers I have in the basement….12 all the way baby! ;)

I don’t think I am cool at all! I have good self-esteem but cool? No… I am a 1. IMO.

@Cruiser album collection and amplifiers? This is relevant to my interests.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard pray tell where I may assist your interests!! Bottom line is older is better!! ;)

tubes man. tubes.

According to my better half, I’ve never been cool.. Only “HOT”.. well, that’s what she tells me (how do you spell ‘spssssssss’..?)

@Blondesjon and @Cruiser my good amp is a Peavy Delta Blues 210. 40 watts of all tube power. Mmmm, she’s a beauty. I’m thinking about buying a Fender Twin Reverb at some point.

I married @Blondesjon.

That makes me totally cool. Like, way cool.

I’m way cool; just ask my granddaughter.

Nor so fast @jonsblond….cool is in the eye of the beholder…does he sort socks and shuck corn??

Everything is relative. I think when I am in NY I am probably a 4. In TN and MI more like an 8. In FL I was probably a 7 when I was younger, now about a 6.

@Cruiser . . . no. i lick my eyebrows and make the fucking corn shuck itself.

Since cool is another form of beauty I’m going to say it’s 8 or 9. I’m dying to look as aesthetically beautiful as possible.

I figure about 9.
It would be 10 if my golf game was better.
I learned it from my dad who was very cool.
I got a refresher from my girlfriend who is also very cool.

Oh, I forgot to answer the additional questions. I became cool because I worked in a really cool jeans store when I was 14. Everyone else was 16+. All my peers were wearing Jordache and other desinger jeans and the store always had cool music playing and trendy fashions. In turn, I had a good wardrobe, and was fairly pretty I guess, good body, and so in school I was cool from what I understand from other people. I didn’t feel super cool at the time, but I guess I was. The way I saw it was the “cool” kids, popular kids, were not really associated with me anymore. I had stopped hanging out with them as they became cheerleaders and started partying on weekends. They never ostracized me, but I kind of drifted. From what I understand they thought I was the wild one,ajd so did the parents, especially in high school, because I often wore high heels and had a late curfew, makes me laugh.

Actually, I think a big part of being cool is having confidence, and having some sort of charisma or presence.

In college I was one of the better dressed, and I had a northeast, cityish thing about me people found interesting I guess. I went to school in the midwest. I had travelled more than a lot of the people I knew at school (but not that much really) I was Jewish, and there were not many Jews at my school, I don’t know what else. But, one of my close girlfriends from college once told me when she saw me on campus and though I was cool, and then she realized I lived a few dorm doors away.

Now I think I am fairly average. I still definitely get more attention when I am at a weight I like and dressed well, make-up. So much of it is superficial really, but you have to have the confidence thing also.

Oh, and a good sense of humor helps a lot.

I think it has a lot to do with self esteem. If a person has low self esteem, they’ll do whatever it takes to fit in with the cool crowd. It takes a lot of cohones and self esteem to go against the norm and be yourself. I’ve never been part of the cool click and I don’t consider myself “cool” per say but I do think I’m pretty darn sexy and I’m okay with that! I don’t mind being the odd one. I actually like it :-)

@kheredia I think the unique, odd men out, can be considered the coolest sometimes.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard The subsequent photo didn’t help much, eh?

I make “The Dude” Lebowski seem uptight. I attribute my coolness to the years of fasting and meditation that finally brought me to a state of mindlessness.

I am not at all cool and proud of it but I bought the Easyrider DVD last month if that counts.

I am super cool. I was told this by a 15 year old kid so it must be true.

I am so damned cool I even amaze myself!

@zen Because cool seems to be what society readily accepts. Unless you’re a hipster, then you’re always cool lol.

I’d give myself an 8 out of 10. I can be pretty dorky sometimes though.

Being humble is oool.

@Jude totally oool

I most certainly am not cool. I have outgoing surfer friends, so by their standards, I’m not. I’m a huge weird oddball to them, but they like me anyway.

…My mom thinks I’m cool though.

@redfeather hahaha!!!

I’m a geek, but sometimes I’m cool so I guess I would be in the middle. So a five or so. I have average self-esteem, and I’m myself no matter who I’m with. I guess I became a semi-cool geek just by being myself. And happily joining marching band.

I’d say about a 3. I’m a fan of both Cher and Barbra Streisand. That’s never going to be considered cool but I am not ashamed!

Lmao time to break out the really specific definitions/labels. Please note that I don’t necessarily agree with these because I hate trying to pigeon-hole myself or others.

So these days, technically a nerd is that kid who works really hard in school, is always at the library, who prefers the company of a book over the company of people (total stereotype, I know).

A geek is somebody who is obsessed with and/or knowledgeable about a particular niche activity that usually bears a certain connotation. These activities include but are not limited to video games, comic books, anime, computers, etc.

A dork pretty much has the negative qualities of a nerd and none of the positive ones.

You might refer to this chart:

Stereotype…..technical skills…..social skills
Nerd…............Yes…..................No
Geek…...........Yes…..................Yes
Dork…............No…....................No
Normal…........No…....................Yes

The question now is, are only “normal” people “cool?” Hell no, not in my world! I’m a bit of a mixture of a nerd and a geek and I love people who are the same. That said, I’m not somebody who fits into the typical definition of what “coolness” is. But I for one think worrying too much about one’s image is very un-cool.

I don’t know….sometimes I really like myself, but often I just feel awkward. It honestly depends a lot on who I’m with…when I’m comfortable with the people I’m around, I’m great. But with a bunch of strangers, I’m shy and awkward and regret everything I say and also overthink it. So….boo.

I am very ool, too @Jude also too exy for my shirt.

@Mariah That chart proves you’re very cool. ~

Cool is not being able to @ your fluther name. ;-)

Fuck what you heard, I’m awesome! If ya didn’t know, now you do. And I’m the one who decided this. :D

@Symbeline – I believe you, I believe you, now calm down, breathe in, breathe out…......

@Symbeline blows the top off the fucking cool scale.

@Symbeline Now that’s what I’m talking about.

@deni I can relate to that.