Geek or not a Geek?
May. 14th, 2009 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sulkyblueblogHave a look at this video: http://geekadvancement.com/
"The reality is, while geek seems to be the new chic and is spreading its wings in the land of mainstream culture, us native geeks are still a misunderstood community. What better time to share with the world what we are really all about!" (from their about page)
I came across this via Wil Wheaton's blog post:
I agreed with Wil's initial response (I don't know how to refer to him - Mr Wheaton, @wilw, the esteemed gentleman?), I thought it was a nice little video - well made, funny and cute. But it didn't really sit right with me for some reason. So I re-watched it 10 or 12 times.
The first thing that struck me was it started out in negative terms, with people saying what they *don't* do and implying that the things they don't do are sad and pathetic. "I DON'T play D&D or Magic the Gathering" and Wil's own "I speak python and css, not Klingon". Both seem to be trying a bit too hard to distance the New Geek from the old school Geek. They say "this is what geeks are seen to be, this is what people think they do... but we don't do that". It's as someone saw that geeks were about to become cool and that the cool kids should therefore want to be geeks. But then remembered they'd been mocking geeks for years so they must simultaneously embrace the cool while distancing from the pathetic.
I re-watched it yet again, and realised my core objection... the opening screen defines geek as:
- A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media
- who has chosen concentration rather than conformity
- one who passionately pursues skill and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance
But they don't talk about that in the video, they're not talking about being geeks, they're talking about being a subsection of geek - social media junkies. Being a geek is about more than twittering, podcasting, and using facebook. What makes Stephen Fry a geek isn't that he twitters, it's that he's interested in technology and ideas and he twittered EARLY. Ashton Kutcher and MC Hammer may twitter, but it doesn't make them geeks.
To embrace the life you need to do more than just use the tools. One of the people says "Just because you own a Nintendo wii, does not make you a geek". Well just 'cos you have a twitter account doesn't make you a geek either. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sammoore said when we were discussing this concept "using twitter to keep on top of your personal productivity system which brings together google calander, remember the milk and the moleskin notebook in your pocket is being the geek". Telling me you're getting on a plane to New York does not qualify you.
Being a geek is about using twitter because it's interesting, not because it's popular. It's about finding xkcd funny and scarily accurate. It's about a heartfelt discussion about Manic Miner, Elite or Pong. It's about wanting an iphone, or an eee, or a smaller, faster doodad despite the fact that your current large clunky doodad fulfills the actual need. It's about getting lost in ThinkGeek for 20 minutes when all you wanted was a link to illustrate a point. It's about spending 3 hours re-watching a video and writing a blog post on why it annoys you.
I think this is a classic example of a project starting out cool with a focused message and then gradually getting more and more muddled. I'm sure most of the people in that video really are true geeks, but it doesn't come across terribly well with that edit and script. They lost sight of the core message somewhere along the way and once it's gone it's very hard to fight it back.
"The reality is, while geek seems to be the new chic and is spreading its wings in the land of mainstream culture, us native geeks are still a misunderstood community. What better time to share with the world what we are really all about!" (from their about page)
I came across this via Wil Wheaton's blog post:
After watching the video yesterday, I was impressed by the production values, and I thought it was really awesome that it was just one small part of a larger project. I love that the whole thing is supposed to encourage literacy (if you really look for the links) and intends to support a good cause. As a writer, I certainly want more people to be readers!
But as I watched it a second and a third time, something didn't feel quite right to me. I couldn't put my finger on it, until e-mail started flooding in from people who could: this was supposed to be about refuting stereotypes and celebrating the things we love, but it ends up feeling like we're trying to convince the Cool Kids that we're really just like them, and a promotional opportunity for celebrities who don't know a damn thing about our geek culture, and don't care about the people who create and live in it.
I agreed with Wil's initial response (I don't know how to refer to him - Mr Wheaton, @wilw, the esteemed gentleman?), I thought it was a nice little video - well made, funny and cute. But it didn't really sit right with me for some reason. So I re-watched it 10 or 12 times.
The first thing that struck me was it started out in negative terms, with people saying what they *don't* do and implying that the things they don't do are sad and pathetic. "I DON'T play D&D or Magic the Gathering" and Wil's own "I speak python and css, not Klingon". Both seem to be trying a bit too hard to distance the New Geek from the old school Geek. They say "this is what geeks are seen to be, this is what people think they do... but we don't do that". It's as someone saw that geeks were about to become cool and that the cool kids should therefore want to be geeks. But then remembered they'd been mocking geeks for years so they must simultaneously embrace the cool while distancing from the pathetic.
I re-watched it yet again, and realised my core objection... the opening screen defines geek as:
- A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media
- who has chosen concentration rather than conformity
- one who passionately pursues skill and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance
But they don't talk about that in the video, they're not talking about being geeks, they're talking about being a subsection of geek - social media junkies. Being a geek is about more than twittering, podcasting, and using facebook. What makes Stephen Fry a geek isn't that he twitters, it's that he's interested in technology and ideas and he twittered EARLY. Ashton Kutcher and MC Hammer may twitter, but it doesn't make them geeks.
To embrace the life you need to do more than just use the tools. One of the people says "Just because you own a Nintendo wii, does not make you a geek". Well just 'cos you have a twitter account doesn't make you a geek either. As
sammoore said when we were discussing this concept "using twitter to keep on top of your personal productivity system which brings together google calander, remember the milk and the moleskin notebook in your pocket is being the geek". Telling me you're getting on a plane to New York does not qualify you.Being a geek is about using twitter because it's interesting, not because it's popular. It's about finding xkcd funny and scarily accurate. It's about a heartfelt discussion about Manic Miner, Elite or Pong. It's about wanting an iphone, or an eee, or a smaller, faster doodad despite the fact that your current large clunky doodad fulfills the actual need. It's about getting lost in ThinkGeek for 20 minutes when all you wanted was a link to illustrate a point. It's about spending 3 hours re-watching a video and writing a blog post on why it annoys you.
I think this is a classic example of a project starting out cool with a focused message and then gradually getting more and more muddled. I'm sure most of the people in that video really are true geeks, but it doesn't come across terribly well with that edit and script. They lost sight of the core message somewhere along the way and once it's gone it's very hard to fight it back.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 09:33 am (UTC)I think that actually makes you a consumer :-P
Being a geek (and I only feel like I have the tip of my finger in the geek world) is about interest in the tools for the tools sake, not for using them. It's about pushing to tools to their limits and combining them to make them more useful. It's about creating new tools that meet your need and then handing them on because using tools isn't nearly as interesting as creating them.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 12:23 pm (UTC)I agree with Lorna there are far too many apologists about who are happy to claim geekhood because they own an iphone, but wouldn't dream of sitting down for a day to indulge in something as uncool as a game of warhammer. Not that it necessarily disqualifies them, but just an iphone and the odd twitter makes you a very low grade geek, probably not even an iota-geek.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 02:58 pm (UTC)I think there should be some kind of grading and permissions system:
"You are a Grade 2 Geek, you do NOT get to wear black tshirts with ironic slogans, but you MAY mock technophobes"
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 04:00 pm (UTC)Hierarchy is bad, unless it's in your filesystem :)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:57 pm (UTC)*glances over to the Mojave Desert*
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:29 pm (UTC)Being a geek... is about interest in the tools for the tools sake, not for using them. It's about pushing to tools to their limits and combining them to make them more useful. It's about creating new tools that meet your need and then handing them on because using tools isn't nearly as interesting as creating them.
I am the opposite. I would just as soon use duct tape and a pointy stick for everything unless there is some new bit of desired functionality or content expression that I can only get by switching to a new tool. And once I've grudgingly learned the new tool, I will beat 10 dead horses with it in the quest to use it for everything without having to learn yet another new tool.
Which is probably why I hear "That's not what it was built for!" a lot more than "Wow,
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:55 pm (UTC)I used to enjoy the ropework side of rock climbing, now I use as little ropework as possible to allow me to get on with the climbing.
I'm not sure when this transition took place, and whether it a character change on my behalf or it relates to experience in a given field (i.e. there is really no more rope work for me to learn with delving into the realms of esoterica). Emphatically, I make no judgement on those who do enjoy pushing tools, techniques to the limits, but I don't do it anymore.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:49 pm (UTC)I know quite a few geeks who couldn't care less about how most of their tools work, as long as they work enough that they can use them. Their geekness is more channeled toward what they do rather than how they do it.
IMO, you have described but one kind of geek, from the incredibly varied range of people and interests the term can encompass ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 10:55 am (UTC)This is probably being a geek, too.
Incidentally, I don't know if it's just the the tiny ones, but the paper in Moleskine notebooks seems rather low quality (/gsm). I'm not sure what everyone finds so special about them.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 03:01 pm (UTC)I date and write the location I am before I write anything in it and use it sequentially so that as long as I can roughly remember when I did something (or what I did it before/after) I can find the note I'm looking for.
YMMV, works for me :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 02:49 pm (UTC)I run into something of a problem when I try to define 'geek'. For me, there is inherent in the term a refusal to be defined by the opinions of those who conform to the prevailing societal norms. Geeks are, to me, those who have no interest in being labeled by the popular people and those who populate so-called mainstream culture.
Geek is a very broad and tolerant church, and developing the above idea, I get the feeling that a part of it is about the freedom to self-identify rather than be pigeonholed by the opinions of others. We are accepting people because we allow people to identify as whatever sort (or multiple sort) of geek they choose to.
Now of course I can't claim to speak for all geeks, because that would be hugely arrogant - after all I haven't asked them all... However, I personally feel as though geeks define themselves at least in part in terms of what they are not, whereas non-geeks define us in terms of what they perceive we are.
Or, you know, maybe not. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 03:52 pm (UTC)Also, I apologise for the phrase "prevailing societal norms". Not sure what came over me there...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 04:02 pm (UTC)If they happen to be insufferable bores as individuals then perhaps I might ;-)
And therein lies a lot of the problem, when you are so "far from the mainstream community to see daylight anymore", you run the real risk of being boring to many people, whether you are an interesting person or not.
If you can't engage with someone it's very hard to like them, or even spend time with them. I know technical people who can bring their in knowledge down to my level and make me feel smart for understanding it and I know technical people who confuse me about things I already thought I understood. I'm pretty tolerant but I know who I'd *rather* spend my time with.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 04:40 pm (UTC)Admittedly, a tendency to be unaware of the suffering of others during your conversations may be more prevalent amongst geeks than everyone else...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 02:34 pm (UTC)Mind you, I've spent plenty of time with marketing and business people who talk in a similarly different language!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 02:58 pm (UTC)One of the keys to be able to spread ideas from within your tribe to outside is to break down this barrier to entry of 'learning the language'. Of course the counter is true, if you want to be a member of a tribe, the fastest way in is to learn and use their language.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 02:48 pm (UTC)Hmm... maybe it's something about being in a certain obsession percentile. "Of all the people who like Star Wars, a Star Wars geek will be in the 10% who like it most". So it doesn't matter if there are actually thousands (millions I guess) of people who watch Lost, the geeky ones are the ones that have scoured an atlas for possible locations of the island. (*hide*)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-16 04:12 pm (UTC)