Acting cool or being cool can mean a lot of things. Some of it isn’t cool.
It is best to watch out for the illegal sides of “acting cool,” especially among teenagers. Sometimes, there’s a thin line between cool and harmful or outright dangerous. Understanding what it means to act cool is a significant step to ensuring you’re on the right side of cool.
What Acting Cool Actually Means
When you pay attention to what a kid thinks is cool, it tells you a lot about them. Generally, acting cool means being fashionable, popular, or attractive. Sometimes, it also means keeping your emotions in check instead of being all over the place with your emotions.
The idea of a cool kid is usually subjective. This means that what’s cool is often, and I mean this completely, only what other people accept is also cool.
Yes, that’s right. The minute everyone in school stops thinking that cool kid is cool, the cool kid…well… stops being cool.
It’s tough, though, to demote a cool kid in school. Even when it does happen, that kid may still have some die-hard fans.
The Flip-Side of Acting Cool
It’s almost always the case that kids acting cool have an audience. There’s most likely a group of other students watching them as they speak, walk, play, write, jump, hop…
…or so they think.
Often, the behaviors that are called cool are only driven by insecurity. Many cool kids, especially those who indulge in risky behavior like smoking or vaping, skipping school, etc., are still trying to figure out whether they’re accepted. They may sometimes create a whole clique of their own and push to become labeled cool.
It’s common to feel a lot of pressure to do something that other people would think is cool. And imagine the crushing effect when no one thinks it is cool.
The Cool Kids
Kids think different things are cool.
They can think being rich or dressing up nicely is cool. They can think self-care and goal-setting are cool stuff. They can also think being smarter than everyone is cool.
While some kids think fitting in is cool, others think standing out is cool. Between 12 and 17, it’s usually expected for a kid to want to stand out. You’re trying to enter into a full identity that you can call your own. So, the idea of fitting in becomes less desirable.
Let’s agree: every kid wants to be cool, but it makes sense to stay aware of the lengths you would go to be cool.
When Acting Cool Isn’t Cool
The lines can get blurry on being the cool kid.
Suppose you think that doing illegal stuff or engaging in risky behavior grants you social status (i.e., cool kid status). In that case, that’s cause for some concern and your friends, teachers, and family need to take note. While your peers may not see beyond the moment and want to hang out with you because you seem cool, it’s a bit of a fad. It’ll pass.
You cannot build reliable social status by indulging in risky or dangerous behavior. That’s only setting you up for infamy as you get older.
Let’s Wrap This Up…
There’s nothing wrong with being a cool kid. It makes sense to achieve cool kid status for positive, productive attitudes and activities.
Trust me, that’s the real “cool” that every cool kid should aspire for.
I hope this helps!