As I was reading “Let’s Talk About Love” Wilson brought up a point that I found very interesting. He made a connection between social habits and the ever going struggle to “be cool”. Whether we know it or not, we form habits that make us more appealing to our peers. Wilson puts it best when he says “Cool confers status – symbolic power”. Right when he said that it was a lot easier for me to understand what he was trying to get at. Our taste revolves around the people we associate with and from that we develop our “guilty pleasures”. Something that we indulge in that our peers would otherwise not take part in. This is what defines our character and gives us personality.
I agree with you that Wilson’s move to “cool” is smart on his part. He’s just giving us another word for cultural capital (at least, that’s my sense of what he’s doing) – but obviously “cool” is a much better term for him and his audience than “cultural capital.”