Jezebel 
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New York, 9:57 AM
Tue Dec 8
68 posts in the last 24 hours
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Maybe, just maybe they're emotionally stable because they don't know any better, because they're dumb.
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Also, most of them made fun of me, though some were very nice, so I can't hate on all of them.
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I think this study is confusing "popular" with "cool." At least at my school, these were two different things. The cool kids had very few friends -- because nobody was cool enough to be their friends. The popular kids weren't that cool because they'd talk to anyone, and as we know in New York, if you'll let just anyone in, then nobody wants to come.
I just wish I hadn't wasted so much time obsessing about a social scene that, with hindsight, I see is pretty pathetic. At least it's given me a better means of appreciating the social patterns in this town's adults.
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And I think I could have considered myself "popular" as in, most everyone knew who I was and I stood out. Or does that make me no-no-no-notorious?
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Our class president/cheerleader captain is a combination of brains, beauty and angry cynicism. She thinks I'm hilarious now, though we used to be at each other's throats. We're a lot alike...but different.
I spoke my mind and got into trouble all the time - I was the only person in the National Honors Society to get detention! So yeah, I was certainly known.
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Me now: Angry cynic who doesn't really care for anyone.
Well, I'm the same! Can I assume the popular girls are too?
But really, I find it funny that I had to hide myself on facebook because I got sick and tired of getting friend requests from high school people. I got maybe...two or three requests from popular people I wasn't friendly with and I'm still not sure why. The people who did randomly add me tended to be ones that I didn't really talk to, but they definitely weren't what you'd call popular. Most of them seem to be stay at home moms, and they all live in the same area and really seem to be into Jesus. (why did they add me again?)
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@JerseyGrrrl: I mean, come on.
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But any day now, we expect them to branch off and start a cult. The cult of Upper Class German Lutherans.
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This isn't about criticizing someone for being overweight, but rather mocking a group of people who never left their hometown or sought other experiences, only sharing the same habits that would result in identical unhealthy qualities.
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Maybe the Swedes were talking about those kids that are popular because everyone actually likes them, not the dominant, bitchy girls that seem to be a universal pain-in-the-ass for everyone who's been through high school ever.
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And "jaywords"? Fuck yeah, I'm jaywords. I'm jaywords of the people who received bmw's the day of their sixteenth birthday. However, while I grew up poor, at least I wasn't an asshole to other people.
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"Happiness" be damned, I'd still rather have the latter.
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I didn't mean that money and networking skills are what we should strive for (anything but). What I meant was, there's this idea that "living the simple life," that is, not striving for very much, leads to happiness. It's particularly used against women; the whole "women are more miserable now than they used to be, they'd be happier if they just went back in the kitchen" idea is so often thrown out to defeat the idea of female achievement in education and in the workforce.
What I'm saying is that I'll take the cut in my own "happiness" if it means I get to live a more interesting life and achieve more. I wasn't trying to criticize those who don't make this decision, however. I was more trying to point out how our definition of what constitutes "happiness" (hence why I put it in quotes) is rather arbitrary. I know the common societal view of what leads to a "happy, fulfilling" life doesn't necessarily make me feel happy or fulfilled.
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The most elite cliques of popular kids were usually pretty small and in high school popularity tended to revolve around five main things:
1. Athletic prowess - which after high school is largely irrelevant for all but a couple kids who go on to play college sports and nearly none of those compete after college.
2. Attractiveness - which if it peaks at 16 usually starts fading by 25, especially for athletes who seem to disproportionately gain a lot of weight and/or become slovenly after they stop competing.
3. Partying/Not Studying - not a particularly solid long-term plan; it's harder for an academic underachiever to start on that PhD in astrophysics at 30 than it is for a physics nerd to get their confidence and their looks together by 30.
4. Co-dependence within the clique - if you don't have an identity of your own by the time you leave college you are highly likely to never evolve beyond your hometown, where your "status" loses relevance once all the kids you were "cooler" than move away to do other things.
5. Pettiness/Degrading others - karma is a bitch and popular kids are way outnumbered.
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