Every generation has their own definition of "cool," which a person must meet in order to be considered socially acceptable. For millennials, that standard is redefined as "chill."
Chill is the girl wearing an oversized sweater, sunglasses and sneakers to brunch as her hair clings to the final remains of last night's up-do.
Chill is being outwardly apathetic towards every endeavor in your life, while still succeeding.
Chill is eating at secluded restaurants in gentrified areas and posting to your Snapchat story.
Chill is not caring because you don't have to.
Chill has become the new standard of cool. It’s no longer highly regarded to be a good student who works hard. It’s better to just be smart. Wearing expensive designer clothes is no longer an enviable prospect, but merely evidence that you care too much.
This standard has made cool more generally accessible. You don't need closets full of designer clothes and lavish homes to be accepted. You don’t need drawers full of makeup to be stylish. While there will always be an innate level of societal admiration given to those who live lives of excess, it’s no longer the one and only ideal. Natural beauty, natural talent, and natural style are in. Personality and signature can be more important assets to image than money. Anyone with a look, a gift, or a message, can be chill.
Of course, like all things, chill can be bought; and it has. Chill can be thrift store clothes and an old camera documenting the realities of today’s americana humbly over social media, but chill can also be $900 bed sheets from urban outfitters and exclusive brunch spots and a St. John knit sweater paired with acid wash cut-offs in an effort to convince the world your life is effortless. Chill can be manufactured and sold, and as long as it looks natural, people will buy. Regardless, real chill is organic, and buying your chill counteracts the essence of what is great about it.
Still, we must ask the question: why is it that chill has become the new standard?
Trends are fleeting and shallow. There is no science behind them. Therefore, I cannot give you the precise root of why chill has taken rise as it has. Still I can offer my best hypothesis as a member of Generation Chill myself.
Growing up during the infancy of social media, millennials were immersed in a culture of constant connection. Consequentially, it was no longer pictures of celebrities plastered all over their media, but their own peers. Now, instead of the standard of beauty being Hollywood stars and models in magazines, it was Katie from homeroom and her perfect Instagram. The people we saw everyday now had the opportunity to present themselves as a perfect version of themselves, and millennials fell for it, hook, line and sinker. “These people are regular, just like us,” we thought, “they don't have hair stylists or makeup artists, these pictures must be entirely organic and uncontrived.” While it is true that we don't all have professional glam teams in our back pockets, we do all have countless filters and photoshop apps and hair and make up all our own. We just can’t talk about it. That would not be very chill.
In conjunction with this, social media also became breeding grounds for the new celebrity. Instagram celebrities and YouTubers became the new faces of brands and trends, all whilst creating content from the comfort of their bedroom. These new celebrities were the epitome of chill. They didn’t have the pomp or pretentiousness of stars in the past. We related to them. They were just like us. Yet, they were still so much better than us. From this dichotomy, we can derive the roots of chill.
The social media celebrities we grew up with were kids, just like us. They used the same social media apps we did, only better. They shopped at the same stores as us, only trendier. They lived the same places as us, and yet they lived exponentially more interesting lives. They were everything we aspired to be, everything we worked hard to be, and yet they achieved it so effortlessly.
They were chill.
Chill is the American dream. Chill is our battle cry of normalcy. Chill is our backlash after generations of glorified greed. Sure, you can buy chill, but then it’s not real. It is the idea that any one can be cool, not just an elite and wealthy minority. Chill is the most liberal version of cool. It’s accessible, easy and fun.
There has yet to be a cool derivative that is fully available to everyone. Still, I am here today to claim that chill is the closest we have come yet. The world can tear down millennials all they want. We’re not perfect. Regardless, I stand tall in my proclamation that chill is the most revolutionary cool there is. It’s cool for me and you.
