It's been a while I know, but this has been on my mind a lot lately; the difference between being popular and being cool.
Back in primary school, it was so small that they were rolled into one, it depended on whether you wore the right clothes, watched the right TV shows, and played the right sports. Of course having a school uniform took out the clothes factor a lot (as it did at secondary as well) which I am so grateful for (massive believer in school uniforms).
Then you get to secondary school, for me this was going from one class per year, to eleven so quite an increase. With 6 feeder primarys and people coming from elsewhere, the cool/popular groups combined. It was here I started to see the difference between popular and cool. You were able to be widely liked and known without having to be cool. The majority of people knew each other so the cool groups stayed pretty steady from primary to secondary.
6th form. 2000 people per year (no that's not a typo). With so many people coming from around the country and around the world, many of these groups were thrown up in the air. It was too big for there to be a cool group. It was very refreshing. Your "social standing" if you must call it that was determined by which seating area/canteen/cafe you went to at lunch time. There was no uniform but unlike all of the non-school-uniform days in primary and secondary, there was far less competing to wear the right clothes, and dress the right way. In a way, it was a bit like St Trinians with everyone finding a group of people similar to themselves, you had the hippies, goths, varleys, rugby lads, and us average joes.
And then you get to University, for the majority of people, they have come without their friend group from school. Being cool is pretty much irrelevant. It's all about knowing more people, and that comes under popularity. Joining random clubs and societies and putting yourself out there is the only way to do it, dressing in the right clothes and treating people in a way that makes you feel "cool" is going to get you no where. You need connections these days if you ever want to find a job, and Uni is such a great opportunity to do this.
I think in general, it comes down to this; Cool is dressing the right way, acting the right way (often frankly cruel), and keeping to a small group of people. Popular is being widely known, and generally well liked for who you are. I feel like you could write a whole psychology paper on this but I have enough work of my own I should be doing!
Popular or Cool, you decide; I definitely know which one I'm aiming to be
All the best,
Bea x
