HW 27 - Informal Research - Interviews and Surveys

Family Interview:

I choose my brother to interview because I think he is consider “cool” by his friends, lots of family members including myself, and sometimes strangers. [People want to be his friends because he is tall and nice looking, strangers think he is cool because often times people asked where you get that can we trade? My family likes to shop with him, because he has a typical good taste, often trying to be buy the piece that he brought. But my reaction of him was that it is not really because of the things that he brought, it is more of his original potential that brings it out,makes the "product" as attractive as they are to the others. He is always good at that, I don't know how.] I first asked him what is cool, and his definitions are different from most of the people that I asked or interviewed. Since both of us including our family did not really live under the American culture of “coolness”, my brother did not really used the word “cool” to mean attention, special…etc. “Cool” to him is just to describe a person’s who doesn’t talk a lot, and is hard to approach to. I would say his definition of “cool” lies more on the Chinese culture of cool, and that is what the dominant Chinese culture will define “cool”. But as I keep asking him, he said he is aware of how Americans used this term, consider a "nice/positive term to use", but he would never used that to categorize people. To him, if a person is wearing something typical or having a strong fashion sense, he will just call that person has taste, but he would not say “cool” as a response.

I noticed my brother is a very talkative when he feels like to be in a conversation, so I keep on going more in depth into the topic. I asked “is it possible to be true to yourself or does it even exists?” His answers are pretty neutral and as I said, he is aware of it. He never tries to stand on an extreme side, but talk about the possibilities and what he knows about different answers. For example, he will say “it depends; you can say I did copy somebody’s style or I didn’t, it is very inarguable”. He said he knew his style is not the one and only, but he is not trying to be anyone or his icon. He is just following certain style, not a specific person. Whether you think he is copying or not, to him, it is just depending on how you view it. Then I asked a follow up question, “what about you get a piece from this store, and another from a different store, and it matches perfectly, is that your style?” He said, “you can say it is, but again it is designed by varies of designers, so you can’t really say it is mine.”

Our conversation went pretty far, and somehow we talked about life and our dreams and who we want to be. Especially how we view the society and how fast things are changing every single day. I believed we did hit many of the insightful points, and I do believed we are aware of who we are and what we are doing although none of us end up with any solutions or conclusions. To end our conversation, I summarize his perspective and confirmed with him, “so it is possible to be yourself, and even you are trying to be certain ones that you look up to, as your example, Michael Jackson has someone that he looked up to even though he is the king of pop (is not about who starts it, is all about who does it better), you are being yourself, because that’s who you want to be, instead, if you are not trying to be the person you want to be because of others’ distraction, that seems more of not being true to yourself because you change your goal for the others. Is that right?” “Yeah, I do believe people can be themselves, the phrase, ‘we are the same, but we are different.’ Ad nauseum…”

Street Interview:

As I walked out of the school front door, I make a left and walk straight. The first person that I walked up to is a college student who said she is “rushing to class”, but I stopped her anyway since I knew she is not really “rushing”, she is just like any other person including myself, doesn’t like to get stop by strangers while walking. Anyway, so my first question to drag her into the conversation is “who is the coolest person that you look up to?” She looked kind of blank, so I gave her suggestion to guide her and said, “like any celebrities or characteristics of cool…”, then she said, “a person who is rich and have a lot of money is cool”. I was a little surprised by her answer, but to keep up with the conversation I asked, “where does that come from?”, she replied, “errr…I guess the media.” I saw looking at her watch, so I just asked her the last question, “do you think being cool is the most important thing in life?”, and she said, “no, there are more out there.” Then I let her go, and thanked her for the interview.

The second person that I walked up to is an old lady who is walking with her dog. I thought she would be nice enough to do a short interview, but she rejected and I don’t know why.

The third person that I get to interview is a guy around 20ish, just waiting to cross the street. So I walked up to him and asked, “hey, what is cool to you?”. He smiled a little and said, “oh, cook is a person who wears nice clothes, looking fresh.” Since he seems to be interested, I asked a follow up question, “where did all these ideas come from?”, he replied, “the media, magazines, big stars…etc.” I noticed he was aware of this topic, but the traffic light is about to turn so I asked, “do you mind answering the question whether you are cool or not?”, he is being really nice and said, “yeah, I think I am cool.” Then I thanked him, and he walked across the street.

The fourth person that I get to interview is a man walking with his dog, he looked pretty free so I walked up to him and asked him questions about coolness. My first question was “what do you think of cool?”, and he said, “I don’t know.” In order to continue the interview, I asked, “what about the newest things like the iphone, computer…etc.?” He seems annoyed and said, “I don’t care, I don’t value those things.” Then I said, “so you never try to be cool at all?” trying to make him to think of himself a little, and he said, “no, I am just trying to be myself.” From there, I said, “aren’t being yourself is cool?” His seems to be little surprised and said, “Well… I guess if that is the definition.” and walked away.

I realized people on the street often just don’t want to be bother and mostly refused to think and provide insightful answers, so I walked to a lady who walks very slow and thought she wasn’t rushing, and is possible to offer some cool answer with her red lip stick. But she immediately say “No, not right now!”. So I leave her alone.

The last person that I interview is a person who sits on the bench smoking. She saw me walking towards her and she didn’t go away, so I thought she doesn’t mind to be interviewed. Then I start asking, “What do you think of cool?”, and she said, “is to be yourself, and gets attention, just like a main character in the book.” I am amazed by her answer by putting it as a metaphor so I kept asking. “Oh, is it possible to be absolute yourself?” “Yes, of course we took it from the others or from different places, but then we somehow changed it make it our own.” I told her I agreed with her, and asked her one last question, “so it is not the original?”, and she said, “yeah, I guess you are right.” Then I thanked her saying “nice talking with you today” and told her it is time for me to go back to school and we smiled back to each other.

Friend Interview:

I consider this friend of mine normal, and when I said that, I mean she is just like any other 12th grader, who follows trends, has someone that she looked up to…etc. However, since she is not in this course, I choose to interview her and see what she thinks cool is. She replied, someone who is skinny, nice looking, and has a lot of money to spend on brands. Within my expectation, I asked her a follow up question, “what about being yourself? Is that cool?” She thought about it, and say, “Yes, trying to be unique and all…, but is not always cool. Sometimes people will get too self center, and that’s not cool.” “So cool is not all about being who you want to be but having nice clothes and appearance? You mean?” “Well, it depends. I would say both, people who dress in certain way because they wanted to be that way, whether they are being themselves or imitating, it is pointless to argue. Especially now a day, it is not about who is following who, it is about what group or style that you are in.” I am a little surprised by her answer, and since she seems to be interested, I keep asking. “Wow, it seems like you did think about this topic. Do you believe in such thing ‘to be true to yourself’?” “Yes, I do. We all know we are the same, but very different like DNA, identities…etc., but I do believe there is such thing call ‘yourself’. I know that exists, but whether you can find it or not, is all up to people.” “Right, before you find yourself, you must lose it first.” “Yeah, I agreed with what you say and I do believe most of us do feel that sometimes.” “Cool, thanks for the interview.”