"I️ ran a small arts-and-media company, which had a huge social-media following, and I turned down work all the time because I️ had more than I️ could handle. But things have been shifting these past few years. At first I️ couldn't tell, because it was all mixed up with the pandemic, but I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm no longer "cool.""
"From personal experience (I️ used to be a dancing dog, if you can believe it), I️ know what it's like to live through moments of being professionally "cool" and moments of not. It's no different than being cool in life-some people get to have that in middle school, other people in their thirties. Coolness is a fickle bastard-it makes people like you not for who you are but because other p"
A formerly prominent arts-and-media leader describes a loss of professional relevance after years of success and a large social-media following. The individual attributes part of the decline to pandemic-era changes and broader forces, and notes declining responses from clients, employees, and contacts. The shift feels existential during early middle age and triggers fears of hopelessness and dread. Financial needs remain met, but emotional coping is urgent. The individual seeks ways to feel useful, productive, joyful, confident, and calm, and to stop feeling immobilized so creative work can resume. A responder expresses empathy and frames coolness as fickle.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]