Liking things that are 'uncool'

[Hdier]

OK, I was wondering how many people like things that are 'uncool' and not 'cool. I have tried a couple of times to illustrate the difference without using examples, and failed. Therefore, I have resorted to using examples:

Not 'cool': I like the video game Kameo: Elements of Power. This is something that most freshman don't like, but it is not something they are particularly adverse to.

'Uncool': I love Mercedes Lackey's music about the Valdemar books. However, these songs are...well...I'm not exactly sure how to describe them, but they mostly consist of slow songs, generally use a stringed instrument (and nothing else other that voice) and the lyrics...well...go here (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) for a specific example as to what I mean, or here (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) to for a list of a bunch of lyrics.

How many other people enjoy 'uncool' things? What about things that aren't 'cool'?

[RoqueBear]

Coolness, ah yes... To reminisce in the thoughts of high school. About halfway through my high school career I realized that "coolness" was quite subjective and at the bottom of my priority list. To place value on the things that I liked compared to the standards of others felt a bit cheap. It wasn't easy, but anything worth struggling for isn't either.

I'm just as unique now as I was then. If anything, its what draws me to meeting new people and liking the ones I already have. Keep on being yourself and enjoying the things you do. I would be willing to bet you find others with the same interests and that your interactions would be more significant than just following what the sheep think is trendy.

I remember a disagreement I had with a girl in high school. In an effort to sling verbal mud she called me "weird". In response I told her she was "Normal, boring and predictable.. enjoy your day lemming." We ran into each other years later, and she told me that actually gave her some perspective on life. We didn't mesh very well at the time, but became friends later. Shes pretty interesting now.

[Hdier]

LOL, I love that! Nobody has called me weird recently, so I doubt I'll be able to use it, but I never though of doing it.

Did you display the things that were 'uncool'? For example, I live (when I'm actually in the High School, at least) by the philosophy 'I don't mess with them, they don't mess with me'. In other words, I keep myself mostly unnoticed, except for the obligatory arrogance about being smarter. Pretty much no one at my school knows me, or the music, video games, books, etc. that I like.

[Tsuru]

I think that the older people get, the less relevance those terms have even as a concept to be indifferent to. (Hopefully).

I play magic: the gathering and like anime a lot, I assume a lot of people consider those as nerdy/mockable hobbies I guess. I tend not to share my interests with others more out of general respect than anything else. I don't want to be the guy that prattles on about their hobbyhorses to people that aren't actually interested. I also don't really get much out of talking about a lot of my interests anyways - just having them is enough.

[Hdier]

I like magic to, as well as D&D (and now WOD).

So, if somebody were to ask what your hobbies were than you'd have no issue with sharing them? I tend to avoid the topic at all costs.

[Uytuun]

I'm so confident in my uncoolness that it becomes cool again. :p

D&D is awesome, I was/am a total (c)RPG freak and I once met a boyfriend over the Internet (which appears to be a huge social stigma here), but I managed to pull it off without too much social damage...

[errrzarrr]

I used to like "uncool" stuff. I still do like "uncool" stuff, but I am leaving them gradually.

yiha! MtG! I dont play it anymore but I still like it!

(erm, a note: a lot of those "uncool" stuff is uncool because we let people put it as uncool)

[Paul V]

'Coolness' isn't (and can't be) objectively meassured. Therefore, I've declared myself immune to it, and also my possible lack thereof. Same goes for 'Uncoolness'. I simply block the word when it's used outside the definition of "coldness" or "chill".

Also, I'm almost the polar opposite of most people I know. I like weird and varied music (nothing mainstream), I like writing, reading, learning, playing fantasy games (D&D and videogames alike), I'm not desperate to have sex, I don't like having as many friends as I can, I'm not materialistic, I'm ethical... and the list goes on and on. So yes, you're not alone. And yes, you're possibly uncool. But the question is: do you care about a label that's been invented to make a certain group of people feel better about their pathetic lives? I don't.

[Firelie]

The idea of "cool" is inconsequential when you stop to consider that almost anything is considered "cool" at some point in time to some person, depending on who they associate with and how they aspire to be as people.

[justmeiguess]

I think the thing I like most about growing up is that noone cares about what's 'cool' anymore (well the sane ones anyway). Back at school, especially the pre-teen and early-teen years were dominated by what was 'cool' and what was not - what brand of trainers, how to have your hair etc. I remember one year, yo-yos were the craze du jour...for a few months at least. Before Easter holidays everyone was playing with them, afterwards I was playing with mine, trying to master a trick and someone came up to me and asked why I was still playing with my yo-yo.:rolleyes:

I don't suppose I've ever really been 'cool' although I used to try to appear so. Although, being the geek, I don't think I was fooling anyone. As for 'uncool' hobbies, I'd say my love of sci-fi is probably a pretty big and obvious one. Watching as much TV and surfing the Internet as often as I do would probably also count. I don't imagine posting on a message board about personality types is considered pretty 'cool' either. Thank God I'm no longer a teenager! :laugh:

[AgentofGaming]

Cool is somewhat subjective what you find cool may not be what I find cool. I've been called weird many times before but that's something else that involved not leaving the house.

Back to cool, saying you like Star Wars, Lord of The Rings, get high marks and similar things may end up with a few people shouting nerd and geek.

I think Star Wars , LOTR and D&D are cool ;D
I also think playing Halo and showing off expensive consoles is not cool.

[BlackHawk]

Thank God I'm no longer a teenager! :laugh:

Consider yourself lucky. I'm still stuck grouped by age as a teen, even though I find almost all teenagers entirely immature and mentally underdeveloped.

And when someone calls me "weird" (my sister), my typical response is "anything else new in the world?"

[anthrogirl]

Yeah, I always liked things that my friends didn't consider cool and didn't like the stuff they thought was cool. But cool is a weird concept, so now I don't care, and can afford to since I'm nowhere near highschool any more. For example I remember one night my group of friends wanted to go skinny dipping in the sea and I just point blank refused, so they dropped me off home and went to do it, I think they felt it was their duty to 'enliven' my life, I now realize the majority of them were high 'E''s, needless to say I have different friends these days.

[Tsuru]

I like magic to, as well as D&D (and now WOD).

So, if somebody were to ask what your hobbies were than you'd have no issue with sharing them? I tend to avoid the topic at all costs.

Yeah, not really. Like I said, I generally I don't like talking about my hobbyhorses with others in general (since 95% of people don't care and are just asking politely anyways when they ask about "what you do in your spare time"), but I don't really have any embarrassment about it if they do insist.

[Kfbr]

I'm ridiculously nerdy but hide it very well. I play MMO's, online browser games and tweak my PC. I tell no one, not out of shame but more of an image I'd like to maintain.

People often ask me where the trendiest clubs in town are and I usually just make shit up.

Woot, geeks!

[bubbles]

A friend of mine once said, "Wow, you guys are in high school and you're still playing [insert childish trading card game / or video game here]," and shook his head. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there were people who were making an effort to be weird or individualistic. I knew what was "cool" or "uncool," but I never cared about whether my interests are "cool" or "uncool."

[LordHawk]

Hell, we played Diablo 2(with the expansion pack) and the Delta Force games all the way through college. Love RPGS, Knights of the Old Republic was a favourite, and drunken Grand Theft Auto seems to be that much more fun. I don't go out of my way to hide anything but neither do I offer anything. I've learned as I've gotten older to not worry about it and be who I am.

[RoqueBear]

I have a black lotus and a set of moxes for sale.... few others.. anyone? :)

[Hdier]

If you're being serious, RougeBear, how much are you asking for them?

Yeah, not really. Like I said, I generally I don't like talking about my hobbyhorses with others in general (since 95% of people don't care and are just asking politely anyways when they ask about "what you do in your spare time"), but I don't really have any embarrassment about it if they do insist.

Ha, if people ever attempt to ask me about myself (for politeness'), I deflect them by naming something really weird that makes them want to avoid me. The sad thing is that whatever I say is true, most of the time.

I'm still stuck grouped by age as a teen, even though I find almost all teenagers entirely immature and mentally underdeveloped.

And when someone calls me "weird" (my sister), my typical response is "anything else new in the world?"

Yeah, I've considered most teens immature and mentally underdeveloped since I was 7 or 8. Being 15 and surrounded by :them: has only reinforced my opinion. I'm just worried that they will never 'grow out of' being a teen.

[Pinkie]

I remember the yo-yo craze too, justmeiguess. And Pogs. And Tamagotchis. And all the other bits of tat people's long-suffering parents had to buy for them.

As for 'cool' - I figured that other people's ideas of 'cool' didn't matter, because it was what I liked that was more important to me. And once we got past about year nine at school, it became 'cool' to be different, so suddenly my love of reading and classical music wasn't a cause of mirth to many any more. Although classical music and poetry obviously aren't as cool as, say, some emo band with a tragically derivative name (Adjective (optional), Noun, Preposition, Noun, or 'The' Noun, etc. etc.).

[Hdier]

I'd like to clarify two things:
I am asking if you like things that are 'uncool', though I suppose saying if you like things that are 'cool' falls under the thread as well. I am NOT asking if you care about what is cool or not, and while that is a perfectly good topic, I'd rather it be on another thread, as it is starting to clutter this one.

When I say 'cool', I mean whatever is popular at the time.

[blueback]

I think "cool" is where you find it. People are "uncool", not things.

It's how you carry yourself and how you deal with the world that makes you cool.

I think that when people say "that guy is cool" what they really mean is "I respect that guy." Of course, it's "uncool" to say that you respect someone so you have to say "cool" instead.

[Pinkie]

Hdier, I don't quite see your distinction here between 'uncool' and 'not cool'. Are you saying that 'not cool' is something that is not exactly popular, but isn't something that most people would laugh at, while 'uncool' is something that people find your enjoyment of amusing and a bit 'sad'? Because to me, the two terms mean pretty much the same thing.

[Hdier]

OK, you pretty much have 'not cool' right, something that isn't particularly adverse to 'cool'. I would define 'uncool' as something that would be considered 'geeky', or whatever. So, 'uncool' would be the opposite of 'cool' while 'not cool' would be more or less neutral.

[Bossy Mom]

"Coolness" depends upon your environment. People I know think I'm cool that I quilt, love Jane Austen, dachshunds and learning new things. My daughter's friends don't think what I like is cool (aforementioned), but they think my attitude toward them visiting and hanging out with my daughter (and that I cook things they like) are cool.

To the mainstream INTJ on this forum, I'm not cool. I'm not a techie person nor do I have the time to spend writing long essays on how I think a certain way. This is a forum, not a philosophical study. I'm here to chat with rational people (in the timeslots I can find). I know this isn't "cool" to many, but I like myself.

[Lucid]

I like Star Trek TNG and MMOs and other RPGs (like Oblivion). I dabble with RP with my x boyfriend (D&D and Gurps) and on Secondlife (another "uncool" thing). I like a lot of bands that are "uncool" to like (a lot of 80s buttrock and other things :)) and read an incredible amount of SciFi. But I think all these things are cool. I remember being somewhat embarrassed by them in high school, but fortunately I went to a school for the last 3 years where everyone was pretty uncool and it was easier to just be yourself.

Like everyone else has said, though, that crap becomes less and less important as you get older and more comfortable with yourself. Also, it's likely that you'll meet lots of people who like the same things.

[Jgib5328]

I'm sorry but do any other INTJs play or like sports? I dunno it seems like most INTJs are into 'nerdier' things. I'm not like making fun of you guys or anything, I merely curious.

I do however do 'uncool' things. I don't drink, I watch older cartoons that I watched as a kid, I am heavily academic and future focused, I like to read, I sometimes play video games, I'm on the debate team, I still like to visit the science museum, and I sure a few other things. I would never care if people made fun of me for being into uncool things. I've always been big on doing my own things without other people affecting my actions so I would never care if someone thought me uncool. To be fair, the stuff that I do isn't considered as 'uncool' as D&D or Magic.

[Uytuun]

I play football (soccer) and I love it! It's one of the few things that really relax me.

But admittedly, that's not really a cool thing to do for a girl over here.

[AgentofGaming]

I'm sorry but do any other INTJs play or like sports? I dunno it seems like most INTJs are into 'nerdier' things. I'm not like making fun of you guys or anything, I merely curious.
It depends. I used like Soccer in Gr. 4 and detested Basketball. Played Tennis in Gr. 6 as part of a trip to our local tennis court and liked it. When it reached high school, I completely nonparticipating and incompetent at sports so I thought I would ditch it any sport and take Information Technology as soon as possible. And well it all got 'nerdier' from there.

Video game preferences are quite demonstrative too.
My friends invited me to play Halo (which I had already kicked their butts in previous times).
I said I prefer Empire strategy and RPGs and they thought I was crazy.

Have you guys watched Dilbert? it has a funny depiction of the world.

[Richard0612]

I'm not sporty at all, but I don't mind walking/jogging [good for clearing the mind and thinking ;D]. I like quite a few 'uncool' things such as computers/IT, atomic physics [esp. time travel related], Doctor Who [again with the time!], but I also play Halo, Metroid, etc. along with RTS/puzzle games. For me, if someone says 'that's not cool', I say 'Why? Who says so?', and they have a hard time finding an answer!

[BloozeGit]

I love old-time blues, bluegrass and country music (not today's crap though) and aspire to someday play banjo(!).

I am....the Anti-Cool. :square:

[Hdier]

Um, I enjoy swimming and will ride my bike (though the latter is more for exercise than enjoyment). I used to play soccer, but I didn't continue, as I never did much for my team.

[Caramel]

I enjoy swimming, ice skating, gymnastics and athletics. Solo, competitive sports are my thing. Since most people like teamsports, this is a bit 'off', but not nessecarily uncool.

I like 'geeky' stuff.. science fiction, fantasy, I love video games (RPGs, RTS).. my favorite actor is Seth Green. Says enuff. (Also, I'm the only girl I know that likes Robot Chicken and ZeroPunctuation..)

But as Lucid said, the older you get, the less you care about what the world wants from you and the more you care about what you want from the world.