Clone City
I’m so tired of people acting like they’re too cool for you.
Like… who are we fooling? Certainly not me, unfortunately.
This is something that’s sat on my psyche for a long time, before any of us even knew the what’s, how’s, and why’s around the image of cool. As a fresh twenty-six year old, it comes from a place of confusion rather than annoyance, but here we are, in our early adulthood, still cloning the tropes of our childhood.
Were you a cool kid growing up?
Getting your parent to buy you new on trend clothes?
Hanging out with * insert random name drop that always had to be said when answering the question of ‘who did you hangout with the other day’ * in middle school?
Having that sought after (toy, video game, ipod, iphone, etc.) first to brag and “make new friends” in the process of showing it off?
Writing out these references has me bugging a bit.
We never really change, do we?
The new on trend clothes turn into designer or *rare* vintage thrift or the next thing one hasssss to have. The friend name drops turn into someone the listener probably would’ve wanted to hangout with too, a lowkey but highkey famous-ish influencer, or a celebrity one became friends with through mutual friends that they likely don’t know personally and can name drop because they can. Oh and the toys? They never end; they became our sweet treats and accent seats.
I wish I could say I don’t get it, but I do, I really do.
What sent my brain down this tangent has to do with the intersection of internet in our lives (what’s new!), and this weird pedestal we all try and put ourselves on in order to be what we define as cool.
Congrats! We’ve exchanged several dm’s over the years chatting about topics we both share values on due to working in the same industry, and you still can’t bring yourself to follow me back on a meaningless app because I follow you and you don’t follow me.
Should I really care? No. Do I have a real relationship with this person? No. Is the internet not really real? Yes—but!? Unless I know you, I only chat up people if I feel compelled to do so—be it a photo, video, article, personal work etc. I’m opening a conversation about—otherwise, I wouldn’t.
It actually blows my mind a bit, the subliminal need for superiority. I know like count, viewership, engagement, and whatever else exists still unfortunately plagues users to not do as they may like to do on the internet, but I’ve been noticing a new kind of way people are choosing to one up each other, and it just feels icky, dumb, and not cool.
None of us are entitled to someone else’s choices. I know in the grand scheme of it all, this is such a grossly minute thing to not only notice, but to feel some type of way about; but yeah, I feel a type of way.
I think I feel the way I do because on the one hand, I know it’s stupid, but on the other, it has me pondering why we can’t all just be people. I’ve done the same thing I’m questioning to others as well, but my argument for that is those conversations were fleeting and lacked substance to warrant any other expectations—but does the “realness” of an interaction warrant anything else to begin with?
Authenticity and uniqueness has always been “in,” which makes it “out” until the next unique thing becomes the main thing and so on—but witnessing it in the digital age just makes me laugh at how far we’ve come, but how conditioned we still are.
The people who’ve made authenticity and uniqueness what it is are the people who are just themselves—yes, influenced by everything else—but they are who they are because they allow themselves to be, and that’s what resonates. It’s cool to meet someone and think “Wow! I would like to know more about them, they seemed cool.”
Cool.
It’s annoying to witness people be so on their high horse because society has deemed them cool. Which, yeah!, there are plenty of people I think are cool, and unfortunately many of them have fallen into this category of being interesting, but forgetting to be the person they were before they got some sort of public prestige for being interesting.
There’s a lot of power in allowing yourself to get in touch with what makes you cool and special and all the twinkly words, but the fact of the matter is, there are thousands of other people just like you, sharing the same vibe, interests, mannerisms, style… that’s just how it is, we’re all created from what we see and experience—almost nothing is unique, honestly. So when people act like their shit doesn’t stink, whether it’s through the physical or digital space because of some fluffed up public prestige, it just comes across as having a lack of awareness and consideration for those around you.
We are all “cool” in our own ways, in our own bubbles, and may even have a smidge of that ✨ public prestige ✨ within difference aspects of our lives that makes us feel good and confident when needed most. I’ll be straight, there is a pecking order of greatness in this world, and I believe prestige should always be given where it’s due, but that shouldn’t fully define nor dictate how you interact others.
It’s interesting how these tropes and cycles follow us anywhere in life, at any age. The older I get, the more I notice the feeling of unsureness with sight, and see it in settings like my brother’s hockey family crowds, my friend’s family friend circles, and an acquaintance’s artist community space that is plagued by the tropes it prides itself on not partaking in.
Be better in whatever way that means for you, but we’re not twelve anymore, so maybe let’s try and break the cycle together, eh?
✁ something else ✁
I paired the fairy with the tornado emoji the other day to vaguely describe how I was feeling and chuckled at the natural female baseline riding between magicalness and chaos. I’m leaning more tornado today, but adding in the stone emoji 🗿 for a stoic calm yet uneasy affect.
Saw this post and heavily identified with it, I love when people pair random things and they’re so accurate. I feel like this is more specific to Instagram messages than texting, but I find I tend to get “overwhelmed” for no reason and feel like this when I do a mad 2-4 day later dash to respond 😭.
Bright yellow tree is no more and our stairs are getting replaced—November!
Thank you for reading.