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Geek Culture Will Never Die...or Be Popular
adeelarshad82 writes "Last year CNN wrote an interesting article on how geek culture is now a big part of pop culture, while Patton Oswalt gave his own opinion on how he thinks pop culture has outright co-opted and diluted it. These articles gave birth to a completely different view, which is that geek culture can never truly be part of pop culture. The movies and t-shirts might sell, and everybody might use Facebook, but there will still be a small percentage that loves comics, imports video games, and can build their own computers. In other words, true geeks are much different from the stereotypes we learn about in the movies. The geek culture is not just playing D&D or watching V for Vendetta but also having a bookshelf full of D20 system manuals as well as reading all the Alan Moore material one can find. The fact of the matter is that while geek culture is far from dead, it's not exactly a part of the pop culture either. So, no matter hard media outlets try to make the concept catch on, no matter how many studios try to capitalize on the cultural waves of comic book movies and best-selling video games, there is no such thing as pop culture geekdom."
What keeps geek culture from dying or becoming popular?
Why, it oscillates around a Lagrange point, no doubt.
I have to admit, this makes us sound an awful lot like hipsters trying to be on the edge and always being different.
Geeks pick up stuff early, the best of it filters into mainstream, then geeks pick up something new.
There is a definite line of delineation between my friends that use Facebook and my friends that code. The web may have finally gone mainstream, but I find it frustrating that now that it has, all these people using Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and other webby gidget crap all claim to be trendy IT geeks. What has happened is that the tools of the trade that we geeks have known for years finally went mainstream, and the rest of the world thinks they are now 1337 because of it. Not to sound elitist, but the dumb bimbo bitches I see in lecture hall chatting on Facebook are not geeks. They are still dumb bimbo bitches, just with a Web 2.0 platform to spew their idiocy.
At the end of the day, you should still be nice to geeks, because they will probably manage you one day. Unless your in an MBA program, where you don't actually learn anything but get all the real pay but get to pretend to when you order the latest synergy report on your desk by Monday morning. The geek shall inherit the earth!
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
We've bought into the mutual-delusion that geeks are cool, because we've gathered around places like Slashdot over the last fifteen years. If you're a furry and you hang around other furries all the time, you're probably going to have an inaccurate perception that being a furry is more popular and accepted than it really is. Likewise, we geeks have had a way to congregate like never before, thanks to the internet. And because we've been big on technology, we've been doing this longer than most other groups. So, in that time, our self-delusion has thrived.
The fact is that society may like a few of the things that geeks like, from time to time, but that should not be misconstrued as liking geeks. They may like Kick-Ass and some may even like Catan, but that doesn't mean they like *you*. It just means they like Kick-Ass and Catan.
An overwhelming portion of the population still thinks of "geek" as a pejorative. How many times have you watched movies or television recently, where "geek" was used as a put-down? Personally, my reality-check was only a few years ago. I did something absurdly dorky and mumbled something about what a geek I am. The girl I was seeing at the time consoled me with a concerned "oh, no, you're not a geek!" the same way you'd say "oh, no, you're not a loser...!" to someone who was just berating themselves and slamming their head against a wall.
Geeks think geeks are cool. Society thinks a couple things here and there that geeks like are cool. There is no overlapping venn diagram there, where society thinks some of the things geeks like are cool *and* geeks are cool. Accept it and deal with it. Frankly, I'm about fifteen years too old to give a flying fuck who thinks I'm cool or whether or not I'm accepted by anyone. I'd hope the majority here feel the same.
between using something like Facebook, and being able to write Facebook? And surely appreciating Big Bang Theory is not the same as being one of the gang?
NOBODY FUCKING CARES
Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... f#@k with us.
That is how us web developers are. Even how the security people are. Server people, network people, the list goes on and on.
As long as we are around setting things up for the end user, we will always have our culture. There is also this bad "feeling" of the MTV culture becoming a geek. Apparently Jersey Shore is cool to pay attention to, but being a geek is not. I know, I know. I have gotten used to it. But ask yourself this: the Jersey Shore intro, who made that happen? The editting, who made that happen on every episode.
Us geeks are right on the edge of pop culture. I mean we are right there, but the pop culture fear of not being cool keeps the masses from fully accepting all of our quirks. Like people do not understand us geeks that collect. I collect video games. I had some work people over and had my Genesis/Sega CD/32x combo hooked up, and they asked me if I had a Wii. I have a pretty decent computer, and I kid you not, this is almost word for word what a girl said, "Wow! That is a cool computer. Can I check my Facebook on it super quick?"
We are and always will be the last picked for kick ball. We will be the ones right on the outside of cool. Almost, but not quite. You know what, I like it out here.
The world is how you make it
Agreed. I've always been a geek, but have never had any exposure to D&D other than the cartoon series. Likewise I don't collect comic books. I think those are more US geek things. I witnessed this whole "people thinking they're geeks when they're not at all" thing recently with fans of the new Dr Who series.. I got fooled into thinking a group of these folks would be like me as they called themselves geeks - but they were simply normal average to low intelligence students who occasionally made some pathetic Dr Who references and took it way too seriously. One even got offended when I pointed out how cheesy it was, despite the fact it's obviously meant to be like that (similar to Red Dwarf, but not as good). I have only seen a couple of episodes of the modern Dr Who btw, I don't watch much new TV outside of movies.
which is totally what she said
Then how do you explain the TV show "The big bang theory" being popular? I can't believe it made it through the first season.
Penny started out as a normal girl and now she is spouting geek culture just like the others and the show is still popular.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
Be yourself and stop with the labels. I build computers and I code in my spare time, I have a degree in chemistry and love science. I don't like anime, comic books, sci-fi, fantasty and have never played D&D. I played sports in high school.
Am I a geek? No. Am I a jock? No. I'm me. Fuck off with the labels.
Gone!
Yeah I don't care that much, but it's funny when people first say I'm not a geek, then eventually realise I am. Also it was funny to hear a girl recently say she wants a friend just like Sheldon from TBBT. I (and a lot of active /.ers) am a toned down versions of Sheldon, but she obviously wasn't that interested in me. In real life, know-it-all geeks are shunned, so anyone who acts like Sheldon is not accepted into society with open arms, even by those who love TBBT. Most people are too dumb to even know what he's saying apart from when he acts like a baby. Hell, I don't even get some of TBBT (the jokes around string theory - not really read much on it).
which is totally what she said
I didn't slog through a future ruled by mutant-hating Sentinels, storm the beaches of Klendathu and brave the Three Terrors of the Fire Swamp so that some kid could pick up Halo and call himself a geek.
When my party came back from the Temple of Elemental Evil, they spat on me.
Pop culture has co-opted nearly everything worth while from geek culture and moved on. That is what pop culture does once a sub-culture achieves critical mass. In my life time it has happened twice. The first was with raves/electronica/underground dance music. The second was with computers/internet/geeks. In both cases the sub-cultures went from being isolated, to being referenced in 'popular' ways (techno music in commercials, "rave" fashion on television, companies deciding employees need email, grandma wanting to be on AOL).
The acceptance of computers in popular culture was the biggest change. For raves, even when they were "big" it was still very much a sub-culture. There are only so many people who are ever going to get into heavy bass and recreational drug use. On the other hand computers have leapt from the point where "nobody" (from a pop-culture perspective) wanted to use them, to the point where "everybody" has at least one. Of those who have computers, only a small percentage actually care how they work. The rest just have them because they need one to function in society. That is the co-opting that took place.
In a more subtle way, society's perspective of IT has shifted. In the late 1990s and early 21st century (before the tech bubble exploded), I used to get recognition from strangers for being in IT. It was one of those jobs where people didn't know much about it, but it sounded cutting edge and cool. Society knew they needed to know how to use computers, so being out ahead of the curve was an advantage. Now IT people are just the work place bitches, a rung or two above the mailroom guys (unless you work for a technology company).
Saying the big bang theory is about geek culture is like saying that Short Circuit 2 is a thoughtful look into the culture of India. They're mainly mocking geek culture, while doing a tired will they/won't they story. Or at least they were when I gave up on it.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Oh get over yourself. Anyone who has a speciality gets asked questions, or for advice.
That goes for plumbers, and electricians. As well as doctors, and lawyers.
Just because you know about something that Aunt Edna doesn't, doesn't mean that you're the key to society.
I want to shoot the messenger!
Well, society has always had a love affair with people who "no one thinks are cool." I'd be suspicious of the claim that the popularity of geek culture as an idea hasn't risen in the last few years. (The ghastly term "geek chic" is evidence enough of this) Of course, no one wants to actually PARTICIPATE in geek culture, they just like the idea. The younger ones among us might recall the fad among high-school girls in the early 00's to claim to like "geeky guys" or "nerds" which usually didn't mean actual geeks but guys with unkempt hair, box glasses, and keds. I absolutely agree that no one thinks actual geeks are cool, but people are certainly enamored of the "Hollywood geek;" the attractive, non-threatening intellectual with habits that derive coolness from hipsteresque retro-fetishism (Star Trek, Silver Age comics, 80's video games).
Your furry example has one problem: not even furries are ignorant of the fact that everyone hates furries.
But yeah, people use "geek" as a put down in movies, but people also use "punk" as a put down, and we all know what kind of high school THAT linguistic arc resulted in. Pretty much every teen movie from the eighties onward has a geek or other outcast as its protagonist. People like to think they like geeks because they like to think they have the specialness that comes from being, or being attracted to, social misfits or outcasts. Go to any college campus and you will find hundreds of intellectual loners: no matter how mainstream your interests, no matter how many friends you have, you can talk yourself into thinking you're totally weird and geeky and into stuff that NO ONE LIKES EVER.
I think that this attitude has been easier to conflate with "geekdom" because geeky pastimes have become socialized. Now, you can do something "nerdy" (which makes you weird and special) without having to deal with any of the social consequences of being weird and special! Most people who own an iPhone or Android phone are not developers, nor do they use these gadgets to pursue technological hobbies, but I have heard many of these people declare what a geek they are because of the time they spend modding or fiddling with said device (which they use to talk to their many friends and coordinate their non-geek interests). Video games, which used to be the province of the unathletic shut in, are increasingly being played by fratboy types, which is why the protagonist of many modern games is some variant of Dickballs McMeathead and his Elite Testicle Squad. But again: playing video games is something weird and special, even though you can now do it with all your friends. While before, being a geek (and hence, SPECIAL!) meant spending lots of time reading books or staring at a computer or other lame, unpopular activities, now we can just engage in a few, safe geeky activities. We aren't GEEKS, of course, just like Sum 41 fans were never punks, but we get to pretend and be part of a secret club for as long as we want to, without having to pay the price of admission.
I gave up on the idea I'd ever be cool shortly after high school. I totally dropped off the radar and moved cross country. Figured in a new town where no one knew me, i could renvent myself Turns out, whoever you go, there you are. A geek born, a geek I'll be until I die.
I drank what? -- Socrates
The whole "This is geek, but that is not..." or "Nerd is that, that and that but certainly not THAT" results from all those being labels imposed by others.
Geek, nerd, dork, four-eyes... those were all insults thrown at those who were... well... different.
Those who were "barking" them didn't bother to clearly define them no more than they would define how exactly to accommodate the suggestion to "go fuck yourself". I mean, couple of ideas do come to mind, but is that really what they were suggesting? And where would I get that much strawberry jello?
It was a fucking insult. With time it got turned into a badge of distinction. Even honor to some.
There was no "7th council of nerd, geeks, dorks and other rejects". No rules were defined.
Whoever wants to define themselves as any of those labels is fine by me - as long as they don't expect of me to like everything else they like because we share one or two points of mutual preference.
And as long as we are listing preferences - I to build and fix computers (and other stuff) and love science. Any preference I had for chemistry was killed by my high-school teacher.
Never was any good at sports. I like some anime (mostly on the SF side), some comic books (actually, I prefer some comic books writers), most sci-fi, some fantasy and I too haven't ever played D&D (no local players).
Does all that make me more or less of a nerd than you? Don't know, don't really care.
But I do have a lower Slashdot ID. And more importantly, mine is prettier.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I think they do a good job of showing which characters do the "literal" stuff as a joke, and which characters are the jokes for always taking things literally.
Yeah, besides, at the price of a frac T1, they could just get multiple DSL/cable providers and setup a pfsense box to handle traffic management and have an overall bandwidth surplus, and dynamically allocate gaming across the connections based on latency.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
He did not make a derogatory comments toward females. He made derogatory comments towards stupid females, who are a subset of females. This is no different than him making a comment about stupid people in general. It's quite worrying that you're not only unable to understand this (hence why he said "dumb bimbo bitch"), but that you were actually modded up for your asinine comment.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Being a nerd or a geek, to me, was not in the first place about liking Dungeons & Dragons or computers. It was about getting the shit beaten out of me, every day, by popular kids. It was about my parents telling me I deserved to be beaten up, because I was weak and effeminate. It was about the first-grade teacher angrily sending me back to the classroom on my first day in a new school because I didn't know what "offsides" or "first down" meant. (I'm still not sure what "first down" means.) It was about school administrators calling me in to the office and asking me what I was doing to provoke other kids into beating me up, and how I could change so that I would stop provoking them.
Being a geek was about enjoying reading because it was my own private pleasure that no one could take from me, except that one time another kid took my book and tore it up. It was about spending hours in the safety of the library. It was about spending hours alone at the creek, watching the aquatic insects, and identifying them from a guidebook. It was about learning to fly a plane via Flight Simulator II, even though I never got a driver's license and could barely handle a bicycle. It was about teaching myself to program in BASIC, years before I knew anyone else with a computer.
Dungeons & Dragons was about being in a forest or a cave, finding secrets, finding out that you mattered because you had potential. My first encounter with it, and still my lasting image of it, was seeing the title page illustration from the First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, of a wise old gnome, sitting on a giant die beneath a tree, peacefully smoking a pipe and reading a book. Why was he smiling? What did he know? Could I ask him, somehow?
So I'm married and have stepsons now. The older is fourteen, plays volleyball and tennis, skateboards, plays World of Warcraft and Halo III with his friends, and is constantly exchanging text messages with his girlfriend. Once, he said he and his friends were "cool geeks." Lucky for him, he'll never fully understand what an oxymoron that is.
There was some sickness in children's culture in the 1980s, and I can't entirely account for it. The good parts, the semi-popular culture that has gradually become more popular, is not the full story.
I laugh because I recognize it. And then I explain it to my wife.
Not geek culture? They hang out at a comic book store, get the Mars rover stuck, have dedicated Halo nights, Rockband, fight over the time machine from "The Time Machine", ogle Summer Glau on a train, play with lasers, argue about who would win in a fight between X and Y. I think Penny got hooked on WoW at some point.