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Is the Maker Movement Making It Cool For Kids To Be Nerds?
blackbearnh writes "For many adults into technology, childhood was an alienating experience, pigeon-holed as a nerd and relegated to the A/V, Computer or Gaming club in high school. But according to a Christian Science Monitor article that looks at young Makers, the next generation of tech geeks are social and are gaining increasing support from corporate America. Radio Shack is stocking Arduinos, Autodesk bought Instructables, and teens are flocking to local Hackerspaces to learn how to create their own gear. Wired GeekDad David Giancaspro thinks the desire to create things is natural. 'As we've moved further and further away from that, towards what people call "knowledge work," as opposed to producing something physical, that urge is starting to come back,' he says."
understanding tech is still nerdy
"True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Sorry, won't ever happen. It seems like nerds who grow up to be in the media still project their common teenage fantasy that suddenly the world turns upside down and all the nerds are cool. Hint: the guy hunched over his phone/calculator or whatever and writing programs on it is still and always will be a nerd. But like most of us he's having a good time and doesn't give a shit what label you assign him.
Also I'd love shove the guy who keeps pushing the term "Maker" in a locker.
At some point you have to stop looking for external validation of your personal preferences. "Coolness" doesn't have to be democratic.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
While I am a card carrying nerd
Oh? Which cards, Magic The Gathering?
Society decided that nerds were cool, then decided to actually make those nerdy activities cool. They did so by making it more sociable (e.g. hackerspaces) and more socially responsible (e.g. fablabs). These are good things because it means that people are actually playing with technology, sharing the fruits of their labour, and broadening their understanding in many aspects of life.
The old fashioned nerd still exists, but I'm confident that you'll find that they are still outcasts. After all, people find it easier to relate to people who can relate to people than to people who relate to machines.
Christian Science Monitor is actually a very good newspaper. Although it was founded by the Church of Christ, Scientist, it is not a religious newspaper and its coverage is actually a lot more diligent than a lot of what gets called "reporting" these days.
Breakfast served all day!
I was thinking along the same lines. Been a geek for hire over 25 years, and can hang with the nerdiest. But this weekend, I am going to the Lone Star Rally http://www.lonestarrally.com/ and will hang with a slightly different croud. However, those guys that can make a a Linux box sit up and beg, and those guys that can make a Harley purr, are actually a lot closer than you (or they) would think.
It's about time. I was a nerd in the 60s and suffered some of the predictable ignominies. Now I feel sorry for my peers who have been passed by technology. Unable fully to comprehend what has happened, they are frightened about the future and their place in it.
The internet was a better place before the masses, enough said.
I know i'm going to need my Nomex underwear for this post, but...
1) IME, kids who would be 'nerds' tend to be nerds anyways. It's something that they just can't help.
2) Kids who would not be nerds will pretty much not be nerds. Either they don't have the interest, intelligence, or what. But they'll get into other things instead (not that this is bad, it's just the facts).
2) Kids who are on the fence might be brought in by Make or similar, but this percentage is going to be incredibly low.
3) Right now it is INCREDIBLY COOL to be a 'nerd' or a 'geek'. However, this definition doesn't apply to the kids in #1. The 'new' nerds or geeks aren't really nerds or geeks, just those from #2 that have found a way to apply that label to themselves so that they can do whatever they wanted to do in the first place. I'm talking the cosplay/anime types who play video games as opposed to writing them, buy Macbooks instead of building a computer themselves, and get into Rock Band instead of learning to play a real instrument. There will unfortunately be little to no talk about science, computers, scifi, Make Magazine or any of the hallmark stuff that anyone GenX or older would think of when you say "nerd" or "geek". The terms have completely new meanings.
There are many examples, but y'all get the gist.
do() || do_not();
There are many people who have no social life and interaction and it's not because the lack of will or persistence. They want but they just can't.
That is defeatist bullshit. Yes, it will take years to pull themselves out of that rut, but the proper resources can expedite the process. Those types should begin with researching low self-esteem, Munchausen syndrome by proxy with respect to their parents, the fact that people are only animals, and anything else relevant. There are many well-document axioms within that much-maligned field of Psychology.
The world is actually very tolerant of eccentrics, for different values of eccentricity and provided that you know how to properly be an asshole.
Nah, punch cards.
the Christian Science Monitor was created to show how science doesn't rule out the existence of a higher power
Actually, it was not created for this purpose. It's a newspaper. It covers science, just like the New York Times does, but its mission as a newspaper has very little to do with science or "the existence of a higher power," but with reporting the news. If you're curious, you might want to find out something about its history. From its own Web page:
The Christian Science church doesn’t publish news to propagate denominational doctrine; it provides news purely as a public service. Here’s why: If the basic theology of that church says that what reaches and affects thought shapes experience, it follows that a newspaper would have significant impact on the lives of those who read it.
News with the motive “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind” cannot but help improve society and individual lives. The idea is that the unblemished truth is freeing (as a fundamental human right); with it, citizens can make informed decisions and take intelligent action, for themselves and for society.
The Monitor was founded more than 100 years ago, in an era when "fair, unbiased journalism" was virtually an alien concept in the United States, around the heyday of what came to be called "yellow journalism." The tabloid papers of the time were filled with slanders, misreporting and outright lies. In that business climate, the idea that a church would start a fair and accurate newspaper seemed natural -- because who else would embark on such a fool's errand, when it would put them in competition with men like Pullitzer and Hearst? Those two made Fox News look like pikers. The Monitor stepped in to provide the public with news -- real news -- not as an opportunity to preach, but in the same spirit that many churches feed the poor.
As for the rest of your childish, ignorant rant, may I kindly suggest that you slow your roll.
Breakfast served all day!
I wonder what it says about me when I immediately think of Dune when I hear the word "maker"
It used to be that it was more common for people to DIY. In the dark old days, the men fixed their wagons (literally) and women sewed their own clothing.
The "maker movement" is just a regression to the norm. The excursion into mass market consumerism was several generations, so we've forgotten.
Also, by defintion you can't be a nerd if everybody does it; but that topic is covered above.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
You can enjoy Magic the Gathering without forgetting the rest of the world.
Who's forgetting the rest of the world? I'm not sure what you are even getting at here.
You can enjoy D&D and not drone on about it endlessly to people who don't care.
Ok but that's a fairly universal human failure. People who love football (or whatever) are just as likely to drone on about it endlessly to people who don't care. Its just that since there hobbies are more popular they have fewer people complaining (because more people share their love of football/whatever).
Also, all this stuff you mentioned is just entertainment. Do you really think entertainment choices are this important?
Well, your original post already mentioned not giving up computers and math and such. What else does that leave besides entertainment choices to cause one to be labeled as a nerd?
Being labelled is not a behavior. If it doesn't fit, it's a lot less likely to stick.
Ok but usually in this case it does fit and therefore stick. Nerdy kids do, in fact, like nerdy stuff
Preemptively giving up is not really good for much. It's a poor lesson for kids. It tells people they can't count on you for anything.
I don't understand what you are even getting at here. Are nerds giving up on something? The kids are just trying to enjoy things they enjoy, and getting harassed because the majority doesn't enjoy those things and labels them as "uncool".
Cosplayers have to make their own costumes (or if they haven't, it's obvious and they will be looked down on by their compatriots). It's a much more authenticated geekhood than reading some scifi/scientific american/computer instruction manuals.
I am trolling
So teach them how to cook, rather than pour carbohydrate reinforced grease down their throats - much more effective and useful.
If all you want is a blinking LED with minimum power consumption or external parts count, the simplest solution was the LM3909, from National Semiconductor. The only external component needed for the simplest applications was a single capacitor (value sets the flash rate), and the thing could flash a single red LED for a year or more from a single AA battery.
Unfortunately, the powers that be at National decided to discontinue it several years ago.
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