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Have Geeks Gone Mainstream?

An anonymous reader asks: "Recently, I've been seeing more and more news stories about how 'geek' has gone mainstream. There have been a slew of articles with titles like Geek Pride and Geek Chic, which discuss how movies like 'The 40-Year Old Virgin' and 'Napoleon Dynamite', as well as television shows like 'Beauty and the Geek' have made it cool to be a geek. Two pinup calendars of geeks have been released this year, taking advantage of the new mainstream interest in all things geeky. These include the Geek Gorgeous Calendar, which features women who work in the hi-tech industry, and the Girls of Geekdom Calendar, which includes geeks like 'Art Geek' and 'Movie Geek'. So if being a geek has really become cool, why has interest in CS as a major dropped among incoming freshmen and women are still a minority in computer and engineering fields? Is it cooler to pretend to be a geek (wear 'Save Pedro' shirts, etc.) than to really be one?"

9 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Definition of a geek by Skyfire · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, part of the definition is that you have to bite the heads off of chickens in a circus.

    --
    Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
  2. Re:perhaps... by pyrosim · · Score: 2, Informative

    My gosh... How rude... you need to provide LINKS!!!

    Geek
    Nerd

  3. Re:Whether you're a geek or not... by Daedalus-Ubergeek · · Score: 2, Informative

    A shirt saying "Vote for Pedro" in retro font comes straight from the movie "Napoleon Dynamite". Napoleon (the geek) is seen wearing it at different parts throughout the last 2/3 of the movie, trying to help a new student win a high school student election against one of the school's superfriends/attention whores.

  4. Re:The Girls of Geekdom's "Computer Geek" by eclectic4 · · Score: 2, Informative

    antithesis

    For the non-geeks. *ahem*

    --

    "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
  5. Re:ugh by pyite · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is it that you can't do math or you won't? If you can't, that's one thing. If you won't, sounds like you're just not trying. CS Bachelor's programs really don't require a lot of math. Typically it's two semesters of [very manageable] calculus, a semester of basic linear algebra, and potentially some numerical analysis. If you otherwise like the curriculum, it might be worth getting through that to stay in it.

    I suppose I should throw a caveat in here that I'm an engineering and mathematics double major so I'm a bit biased in my suggestions.

    --

    "Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

  6. Re:Whether you're a geek or not... by Blaaguuu · · Score: 2, Informative

    19" = Nineteen inches
    19' = Nineteen feet
    ...You've been mocked.

    --
    My hand touched her hand. Her hand touched her boob. By the transitive property, I got some boob! Algebra is awesome!
  7. Vote Pedro by TheToast · · Score: 2, Informative

    For the record, it's "Vote Pedro", not "Save Pedro".

  8. Screw Real Genius by caveat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not that it's a bad geek movie, us chem majors (all 6 of us) used to have weekly watchings of it in college...but Pi is definitely the greatest geek movie I've ever seen. Period.

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    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
  9. Re:Who switched nerd/geek defs? by Mahou · · Score: 2, Informative

    no a geek is someone who is smart but has an almost osbsessive interest in something, such as computer geeks, gaming geeks, etc. a nerd is someone who studies all the time because they want to get good grades to impress family/teachers/admitions office/potential employer.

    nerd
    geek

    --
    if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
    ...te?