Top-Down processing

Bottom-up processing refers to processing something subconsciously and then dealing with it consciously. Top-down processing refers to considering something consciously and then digesting it and deciding how to act on it subconsciously.

In this assignment, we are asked to take the desire to be "cool" as an attempt to fill a greater void inside of us, to cover up the emptiness . This is somewhat similar to the Existentialist view that we are all lost and searching for our identity. The attempt to be 'cool' could be seen as one way to define ourselves, and therefore fill the void of not knowing exactly who we are.

My personal view is more akin to Social Constructivism. Social constructivists believe that nothing is completely intrinsic, that everything we define ourselves as is created within a social context. With this belief, it is impossible to pin down one definite source of the 'emptiness inside' or even claim that it definitely exists, because the social context in which people reside is different for everybody.

Along these lines, I believe that no one is above the influence of the outside world, and if they were they would be in deep trouble. And while I agree that there is no one source of this emptiness and that how it translates into our daily lives is, though not 'different for everybody', at least widely diverse. Therefore, I am going to speak from experience and claim only to know the inner workings of my specific group: teenagers who live in nice neighborhoods of urban areas and have had very little go wrong in their life.

With regards to that group, I have my own theory as to one of the potential sources of this emptiness, and it has to do with top-down processing. I believe that in some cases, instead of the desire to be cool being spawned as a solution to the emptiness we feel, the two are more like siblings: both descended from a desire for acceptance which quickly became impatient and devolved into a desire for attention.

Instead of starting with a basic, untouchable, intrinsic emptiness that we attempt to fill with acceptance in the form of admiration (aka. 'coolness'), we start with the essential human desire for attention and from that begin to spin off methods for fulfilling it. One possible solution is to be cool-- to gain attention by having others flock to bask in your glow. Another potential method, almost the 'evil twin' of the cool method, is to create this emptiness-- others will flock not to soak up your happiness, but to lend some of their own. It's the same thing as a child falling down and then, when nobody notices, staying on the ground and saying 'ow' much louder than really necessary.