Geek Culture Will Never Die...or Be Popular 320
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."
The circle of geekdom (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hipsters (Score:5, Interesting)
It's pretentious clap-trap, is what it is.
Geeks identified themselves (or were identified by others) by their hobbies, interests, fictions, and humour, all of which were different from what the "mainstream" people occupied themselves with. The fictions are now best-sellers, the hobbies are widely enjoyed, the interests are more generally interesting, and the humour is printed across the chest of hot women (and men) everywhere. It''s not so much that geekiness has gone mainstream- it's that the mainstream has gotten geekier.
And surely that's what all (sane) geeks have always wanted? Every time you've frustratedly tried to explain some cunning new technology breakthrough to an acquaintance, and been baffled by how bored they seem- didn't you wish they found it as fascinating as you? Didn't you always want more people to tell jokes that you found funny, and your favourite directors/authors/publishers to have more money to spend on your favourite projects? I never plan on changing myself to match the rest of society, in terms of what I like and what I'm interested in- but if the rest of the world could busy itself aligning to me, that'd be just grand.
TFA seems to be confusing "geek" with "clever". You can like football and still suck at it, or like rock and be tone-deaf; being good at something isn't pre-requisite to it being your most favourite thing.
On the other hand, once the "geekdom" of the 20th century has become the mainstream of the 21st, undoubtedly new subcultures will crop up on the fringe. Maybe you can call that "the new geekdom" if you like, but you'd be clutching at straws. It will be it's own thing, and maybe it'll catch on one day too.
Re:I like to think of myself like this... (Score:4, Interesting)
Interesting comment.. I've been called a geek a long time, though I suspect I'm more of a dork than anything else.
Geeks to me are those who have passions and are not afraid to indulge them for fear of being considered weird. I know too many people who love a thing but don't want to appear fanatical so never really explore the thing. It's sort of sad, really.
We're all misfits, I think. I admire those who don't care about what others think when it comes to pursuing their passions.
You are very much right on the dot there... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.