281 thoughts on “regarding the difference between embracing and exploiting geek culture”

1. Set a pick for me on the point goblin at the top of the key, then roll off him and use the baseline, your THAC0 is lower using the terrain for partial coverage that way.

2. “But I would like to make one point: you do not have to play D&D or have anything to do with d10 or d20 in order to be a geek.”
   You are absolutely correct, and I hope I didn’t imply otherwise. It’s just what happens to make *me* a geek.

3. In my dice bag! Everyone knows not to touch the dice!

4. Okay, I’ll revise what I said. You’re not talking about appropriating geek culture as much as geek chic. On this I also have quite a bit of experience. I’m a bisexual woman involved in LGBT activism, I’ve been a local leader, and I write for an LGBT magazine. And “bi chic” is everywhere. Many people feel I need to defend the “real” meaning. But after all these years, I think it’s just silly to say someone is more or less bi than I am or is in some way stealing my identity. Trying to defend my identity takes away from the larger picture: it doesn’t matter if someone likes the same sex or different sex, people still need to be respected.
   For years, geeks have been mocked, bullied, etc. It was half the premise of “Saved by the Bell”. But what have Trekkies done? Like your cell phone? Tablet PC? iPod? MRI? Stop making fun of the geeks. But, moreover, just stop making fun of people. If Shaq thinks he’s a geek because he uses Twitter, big whoop. If it detracts from your identity, it might perhaps be time to rethink your connection to your identity. What are you defending? For me, it’s not about defending bisexuality but about defending people’s right to make a choice, even if it isn’t my own.
   Having read your Twitterfeed about marriage equality in California, I’ll say you seem to get it. What’s sad is even LGBT advocates don’t get it. It’s an argument I have all the time, with LGBT folks or straight people. Gay people don’t get it because of their emotional attachment to their identity (specifically with regards to “same-sex marriage” v. “gay marriage”). But what are we advocates fighting for and is it worth fighting over?
   Geek chic may or may not pass over, it may or may not continue to be a marketing ploy (and the more popular Star Trek, Transformers, X-Men, etc, become, the longer it’ll stay around), but is it worth fighting over or getting upset over? And does it mean D&D won’t still be an excuse to bully kids? What *are* we upset about?

5. “Throwing a bunch of cute girls in low cut tops in there didn’t do it for me either.”
   There were cute girls in low-cut tops? Maybe I should watch the whole video in a tab with focus… 😉
   I keed.

6. In my humble opinion, a Geek Appreciation/Solidarity Organization doesn’t make much more sense than being a member of the Procrastinator’s Society. Good in theory, bad on execution.
   As much as my geek friends do conduct events together and in solitude, getting a group whose modus operandi often involves picking apart EVERYTHING to agree on something is difficult. Case in point, my buddies all loved the new Star Trek film, but I and many others think that Eric Bana looks like he’s trying to pinch a loaf whenever his character is emoting. One of them shot back about how awesome he was in his first Australian film, as if we had somehow implied that Eric was a douche. He’s not, he just makes funny faces and it’s hard to take his role as the villain seriously. Simple disagreements like that (which I suppose speak to geek variations in that none of us even knew Eric had a popular film in Australia) can devour any geek unity in a heartbeat. Years of being bullied and ignored by pretty girls either make us unemotional sociopaths or thin-skinned twits who take umbrage at the slightest indignation. It also makes us rant verbosely.
   To me, “geek” implies that at some point on your life, your interests and lifestyle were considered underground (in a figurative sense and not mom’s basement..but ymmv), laughable, ignominious. You rose above the jokes and made your interests likable to others, whether they are new friends, siblings, children or spouses. I don’t feel for one microsecond that Shaq, MC Hammer or a Czech model ever found themselves as part of a supposed underbelly of society. Vin Diesel may play D&D but he also once sported a ‘fro and made breakdancing videos. It’s really difficult to see him identifiable now as a geek despite the fact I find him a cool guy.
   Bottom line is that once you try to mainline and normalize anything that was once the purview of a select (and often derided) group, it loses its unique status as fringe and becomes…ordinary. I don’t need Hollywood or my neighbors to understand me, and I personally don’t want geek to be mainstream, because then it means Joe the high school quarterback can play PS3 for six months and consider himself to be living the geek lifestyle. Homey don’t play dat.

7. Oh that’s just fiendish.

8. I think you are right, the video doesn’t have a coherent message and it feels inauthentic. The piece would feel a lot different if it had been a YouTube collab video rather than feeling so… overproduced.
   Part of the conflict is that half of the contributors are saying, “Just because I’m a geek doesn’t mean that I do geeky thing X,” and the other half are saying, “Just because you do geeky thing Y doesn’t mean you’re geeky enough to be one of us.”
   The producers of the video need, at the very least, to go back to 9th grade English class and learn to write a thesis statement.

9. I think it ended up being pretty cool though. It spread through twitter, and people were standing up and claiming their geekhood. Whether they were “real” geeks or not, doesn’t matter. It was even fun to point out the fakers. It created a moment that had nothing to do with Geek Advancement and was, in fact, larger than Geek Advancement. The average twitter user had little to no idea why #iamageek was trending, they were just having fun with it.
   I thought it was a real nice little moment.

10. Piggybacking here to point out that there are also those of us who were raised in religious homes at the height of the Satanic Panic. My parents lumped all RPGs in with D&D, which was a gateway to the Occult and turned all who played it into parent-murdering Satan worshippers, obviously. By the time I was old enough to figure out what bullshit that was, I couldn’t find anybody interested in playing them with me.
    Nowadays, I avoid all kinds of gaming because I know I’d get too into it and never do anything else, and I have, y’know, stuff to do. But even if I thought that missing out on the gaming experience made me less of a geek, I don’t think I could convince any of my loved ones of that.

11. [Wow, didn’t realize I could use my LJ account to sign in. Though, I may jump to the Google account later.]
    I watched the video, and honestly, I think you’re right. They meant well, but come off as dicks. I did join the Facebook page, though. I also like that they used actual geeks (mostly) and a fair cross-section of them.
    For the record, I am a gamer. It’s not the only thing that made me a geek back in the 80s and 90s (I’m also a scientist.) but it was a major factor.

12. Part of the conflict is that half of the contributors are saying, “Just because I’m a geek doesn’t mean that I do geeky thing X,” and the other half are saying, “Just because you do geeky thing Y doesn’t mean you’re geeky enough to be one of us.”
    I think you’ve hit upon a big part of what didn’t quite feel right to me.

13. Wil, I don’t know if I’m a geek or not. I mean, I program for a living, I play WoW, played video games since I was 5, been using computers since I was a little kid, enjoy both Star Trek and Star Wars, I just don’t know if that classifies me as a geek anymore.
    With that out of the way, I do see your point, but I just think that… well maybe it’s not uncool anymore to be a geek. I know several people have mentioned that it’s trendy or cool now, but what I’m trying to get at is… people are gonna like what they’re gonna like regardless of fitting into a particular subculture, multiple subcultures, or none.
    I doubt everyone is just trying to destroy what it means to be a geek. Yeah I’m sure some are just trying to take advantage of it. I mean even me, who has just stated that he doesn’t know whether he is a geek or not by your definition, enjoys hearing geek thrown around in a positive light, since I do consider myself a little geeky.
    And after reading over what I just wrote I feel like a little bit of an idealistic sap, but forgive that for trying to exercise my point.

14. I learned Fortran IV using an IBM1130 in high school. It was the size of a washing machine and had 11.30k of RAM. I still remember trying to get that damn membrane on the Timex Sinclair keypad to register.
    The Amiga video toaster was used in the industry for years, a great piece of techology.
    I used to download weather maps from Amateur Radio to a Radio Shack Colour Computer with cassette loaded programs.
    Ummm, I think I might be a geek.

15. I’m a geek and I loved the video.
    “When you’re speaking to people who read TMZ and People magazine, getting contributions from MC Hammer, Ashton Kutcher and Shaq is a logical choice. But when you’re speaking to geeks, it’s insulting to us to pretend that they are part of and speak for our culture.”
    The video struck me as not aimed at geeks as it’s target market. I saw it’s target market being the muggles of the world who still don’t understand that being a geek isn’t a bad thing. It was saying clearly “Hey, you know what, we’re normal every day people. We’re actors, we’re businessmen, we’re scholars, we’re sportsmen.. we are everywhere and where you least expect us. Walk down a street and you’ll see us, whether you realise it or not” and even dare I say it “we’re all geeks to one extent or another”
    I took the whole “I don’t play” business as emphasising that no two geeks are the same. To quote your segment: “I speak python and CSS.. not Klingon”, it never said geeks don’t, just that you don’t. Can’t resist the obligatory perl > python comment here either 😉 I’m not a D&Der but have been known to play MtG, and can’t honestly say I was offended in the slightest when a Philology geek said she doesn’t play it. Each to their own and we’re all the more enriched for it.

16. I’m from the school of thought that we all have a little bit of geek in us, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Friends of mine automatically lumped me in the geek pile just for the sheer fact that I watched Star Trek and love Science Fiction in general. That, and I actually read books out of my on volition.
    Listen, Wil, it’s stupid to even let that stuff bother you. Listen to me before I break out my teacher voice. I’ll totally do it if you keep beating yourself up or continue giving credence to anyone who actually buys into you being a douchebag trying to win a popularity contest. Think about it, man…when was the last time you ever seen a geek win a popularity contest?
    Of course you’re the winner of our own little piece of the web, which you have graciously provided for all of us and share your personal thoughts and experiences with, and that’s what makes you so awesome. At least in my book you are, because you’re a great person in general.
    I’m gonna apply Leonard Nimoy’s logic here now – To not like you would make them dickheads! Even if you’re still a yea…no, I can’t do it. I won’t do it.
    See, I can be nice when I want to be. Just don’t make me unleash my teacher voice on you.

17. I want to say I think there should be some way to stop people from creating a “Society for Geek Advancement” without first getting the approval and permission of all geeks everywhere, but that would be like telling the United Negro College Fund they have to get all blacks and African Americans to sign a petition before they can give out any money. Silly.
    Still, I wouldn’t create a Society for the Advancement of Lamps and then advance toilet paper instead. That’s what it looks like is going on here. Those behind this thing use the word geek and then redefine it to serve their own purposes. I go into more detail at my blog http://bit.ly/VR9BU but essentially I agree with Wil, disagree with this society thing, and then argue over semantics for twelve paragraphs. And I’m occasionally funny, but not too funny cuz if a geek gets too funny and socially acceptable they take away his geek card. BTW all geeks don’t forget the Geeks Anonymous meeting is at two oclock this Thursday behind the library under the awning. They won’t let us use the media center anymore because if you’ll remember last week Lester blew up the soda machine by thinking too hard about integers. Again.

18. It was more about social media than geekness, no insult intended to those participating.
    That’s exactly what struck me — that social media users have co-opted the term geek and made it their own, rather than social media users actually being geeks the way we think of them. Which is fine by me, but do you have to steal my word?
    Most of the younger social media users I know don’t self-identify as geeks. For the pre-teen age group, texting and IMing are a way of *life*, not a sub-culture. (For some of them, it’s something they’ve never not known.)

19. Glad to cheer up your day! I remember getting all excited when we’d replace a modem with a faster one… Seeing what cool new games we got.
    Also, I like saying “Cygnus Ed” and seeing who knows what I am talking about.

20. I love legos! I still have bins stashed at my parent’s house.

21. My problem with this video is that so many of things the participants claim makes them geeky aren’t actually owned by geek culture. Twitter? Please. There are six million users. Might as well cite Netflix. It’s almost like saying, “I loved Spirited Away and so I’m a geek.” The internet in general? My 70-year-old dad uses the internet ALL THE TIME. Sending email? Again, my 70-year-old dad is a competent emailer. And my mom is on Facebook. And don’t get me started on how geeky iPods aren’t.
    Where’s Vin Diesel proudly boasting that he LOVES D&D and has a tat of his first character’s name? Where’s Mila Kunis talking about her Alliance character in WOW? Where is Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin talking about how awesome Halo is? Where is Peter Jackson talking about how Tolkien completely changed his life? Where’s Adam Savage giving us his Fark handle (come on Adam, do it!)? They’re not there. Instead, we have Shaq, who says he’s a geek but doesn’t actually present any evidence.

22. I know this is a complete aside…but never played D&D. And I am ashamed/saddened by that.

23. Thanks for writing about this. When you posted it yesterday I initially was really into it because I could tell that it wanted to celebrate geeks. But after thinking it over I had to retract my opinion. I ended up thinking it was a little “douchey and elitist” and twittered that “the whole point of geekdom, imho, is to be inclusive, not hierarchical and elitist about what counts as a ‘geek.'” The whole attitude about drinking Mt. Dew, playing D&D and Magic, hanging out in your mom’s basement and the fact that owning a Wii doesn’t make you a gamer really rubbed me the wrong way. Even your line about speaking Python, not Klingon, made me raise an eyebrow (But I thought, “Surely Wil didn’t mean what it sounds likes that line means. I don’t know these other people well but after all these years online I absolutely can’t believe he’d be on board with negative way these lines sound”). Because, hell, I did/do most of those things and I’m a geek. Now, I don’t think that you have to do those things to be a geek but it’s ridiculous to exclude them. I just wanted a video where everyone told me how geeky they were because of the things they did, not how geeky they are because they don’t do a bunch of lame stuff other people do.
    I think it might be rooted in how they define geek on the site. They want to define it very narrowly as being associated with computers and, especially, new media. Which is true, to a point, but is way to narrow to contain all of geekdom. To me, being a geek means having an esoteric knowledge about a particular subject and also being really, really interested in sharing that knowledge and reveling in it and also in learning about other geeks’ “things.” I know Shakespeare geeks, literature geeks, coding and/or computer geeks, sci-fi geeks, video game geeks, comic book geeks, and geeks who know a little about a lot of stuff and revel in it all. To me it’s about taking the stuff we’re interested in to the next level of engagement where we just totally bliss out about our area of geekdom. But even this definition isn’t great. I think “geek” is kind of hard to define.
    Anyway, thanks for posting this. Thanks for opening up a conversation about it.
    Cheers!

24. As with so many other things, “Geek” is in the eye of the beholder. And let’s remember, “Judge not lest ye be judged” 🙂
    Me? I’m an old school geek, and remember watching TOS the first time around (although it is a very EARLY memory). I started off as a Trekkie…none of that “Trekker” bullshit…and remain faithful today.
    In the 70’s when TREK was in it’s FIRST heyday, I constantly paid the price for my exuberant fandom, and it only got worse when the 1st Chris Reeve “Superman” movie came out. I got into Superman big time but soon had to stop wearing my Superman shirts to school, because when I did, the bigger kids would test the whole “Man of Steel” thing on me.
    I’ve been around long enough to see “us” grow up, become successful, famous, relevant…and tolerant.
    If somebody wants to be a faux-geek because it’s “in”, or a part-time, quasi, semi-geek, to each their own.
    You’ve even got our new Kirk & Spock on SNL trodding out the same, lame, tired “living in mom’s basement, rubber-ear wearing” stereotype.
    I laugh because I’m in on the joke, while others will continue looking at that stereotype and say “Yup, that’s them!”
    I am a geek, but a geek is not who I am. It doesn’t define my entire life, and I gave up giving a shit what total strangers think about me back in 1980.
    If anything, people like us have developed GREAT bullshit detectors when it comes to geek poseurs.
    I just laugh and shake my head at those who probably woulda stuffed me in a trashcan back in high school now embracing our culture.
    Sure, sometimes they’re full of shit, but the rest? I always knew they’d catch on sooner or later.

25. Okay, I kind rescind my snipe against Twitter. I still think it’s a bit too mainstream, but WOW has more users than twitter does, so I can’t really go by numbers alone. I guess I feel that only a geek would play WOW, but pretty much anyone would tweet.

26. My opinion is that being a “geek” has nothing to do with
    technology, gaming, communicating, or any other specific interest. It’s about your passion for something. A geek is someone that takes their hobby or interest, and elevates it to the level of a culture they share with others with the same hobby and interest.
    Sure, there are tech geeks. There are certainly “gaming” geeks (as in D&D, not Halo). There are video game geeks. But there are also Twitter geeks. And band geeks. And car geeks. Etc.
    Wil is a D&D geek. Leo (Laporte) is a tech geek. Aston is a twitter geek. While they are all different, there is room in geekdom for them all.

27. I totally see that they were trying to get at the “no two geeks are the same” thing after you describe it this way. But they could have said, “I don’t drink Mt. Dew, but I know a lot about beer. I don’t play D&D but I do play [insert something here.] Hey, I DO play D&D… and it’s awesome.” etc. The way the lines came out and the way some of them were delivered, especially without a counter to them, made it seem like the video was just ragging on some aspects of geekdom. I would have preferred people tell me what they DO do, not what they don’t.
    But thanks for this; I see your point about what they video was trying to do!

28. you were the only geek in that entire video. that’s why you’re my hero.

29. Yeah, some of the people who delivered lines came across really douchey, I thought.

30. I’m late to the comment party, but:
    *Of course* it was exploitative. Every ad campaign is, even those for charity. They prey on the common preconceived notions and/or desires of the audience. This one preyed on the preconceived notion of the geek and tried to change the definition of said word to illustrate that geeks are not social outcasts but REAL PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU AND ME! The hoped-for result is that the audience realizes this and hops on-board for the literacy campaign.
    I can see where you would be taken aback (I drink Mtn. Dew and energy drinks, and I most certainly AM NOT an attractive female with a killer smile). I am not, however, surprised that instead of a defining statement of geek pride, this was quite the opposite. It was an ad after all.

31. I’m a geek. Always have been. Actually I call myself a geek-of-all-trades because my geekiness extends beyond just technology and gaming and in to the realms of film and video and music and writing and cars and sports and… well you get the idea.
    That’s what I thought the video was saying. That a person could be a geek and never have played D&D or never touched a computer or never played a video game.
    A geek is someone who focuses on a particular thing, whatever it may be, almost to the exclusion of all else. The video does, in my opinion, make a good attempt at making that clear.

32. To my real time friends, I’m a geek (and was one even before geekness was cool). To those posting here, I suppose, I’m part geek or, perhaps, a geek-in-training. To my son and his crowd, I’m somewhere between a geek wannabe and an altogether non-geek. I’m just a gal, you know, and because I’m a gal who doesn’t believe in drawing unnecessary lines between people, I’ll leave it to someone else to decide who is a geek and who should be flushed from the geek pool. I will, however, warn the person flushing that I’m a very strong swimmer as well as being a gal.

33. Nice. Though I’d point out that your AC, not THAC0, would be lowered by using the baseline as cover. Though at the baseline you might be considered close enough to the basket to get a point-blank bonus at your target, which might lower your THAC0 as well 😉
    Also, what kind of crazy-ass gym did you play in where the baseline provided actual physical cover?

34. Exactly. Look, what it all comes down to is semantics in the long run. I understand why Wil was excited to participate in the video and the reasons behind his excitement, and I think that it was completely undermined by some of the other participants acting like playing D&D is akin to having a terminal disease. Yeah, it’s offensive when put in that context, but at the same time, I kind of feel like I’m in the middle on this issue because even though I consider myself to be a geek, and anyone who truly knows me does, as well, I refuse to be lumped into one category or stereotype. I am a multidimensional person, always have and always will be, and I make no apologies for any of the facets that make me who I am as a person.
    I’ve never been beaten up, but I sure did beat other kids up when I was growing up. Not because I was trying to be a bully or prove anything, just because they were inconsiderate assholes that pissed me off at the time. You’re damn right I stood up for the noticeably geeky kids who got beaten up on, that’s why I wound up in so many fights, because I thought it was lame to pick on someone just because they weren’t running around with the cool kids.
    Does it make me less of a geek because I spent a lot of time in detention for getting into fights? Because looking back on it all, I just remember feeling as if an injustice was being served on someone, I needed to intervene. That’s probably the entire reason why I became a teacher to begin with, because sometimes there just isn’t an advocate to speak for those who can’t speak up for themselves.
    In High School, I ran with kids in every single crowd. I mainly ran with the punks and the metalheads, who were total geeks that loved Star Trek, D&D and other things that I loved. I never thought I was cool, but I thought my friends were.
    It wasn’t until I went to my 10 year reunion that I found out that I was actually popular, to my utter shock and dismay, because I never tried to be popular in High School. I just tried to be fair and not put labels on people and I found something interesting about every person I knew back then. And not a whole lot has changed since then. That’s just who I am, and probably who I’ll always be and I’m not going to apologize for standing my own ground about certain things.
    But wild tangents aside, my point is that while I like the idea behind removing the stigma of being a geek, they really did do a piss poor job of getting that point across, if that was their intention to begin with. And no, Wil, you’re not responsible for the outcome, there is no blame to be thrown into your lap.
    Now who do I have to beat up?

35. I didnt know three fourths of those people. I could tell that most of them were fake by the way they talked and acted. I’m not saying you cant look cool and still be a geek.. but sometimes you can just tell. I think that we need to stop categorizing people so much. I’m not saying everybodys as cool as all of us on here, but it would be cool if there werent the cool kids, nerds, jocks, etc. But I dont think thats ever going to change. SOO.. I guess we’ll all stay in the Geek category. Which all in all isnt that bad… 🙂

36. It was 4A ball in Phoenix. While I am tall, (6’7″), looking back, that was the detriment to my lifelong career. 6’7″ makes you a center in high school and a shooting guard in college. My dribbling skills and running speed were far behind where they needed to be. So shucks, I ended up a computer science major. 🙂

37. I totally agree. I can understand everyone’s reasons for being either a little upset or offended here, but come on. The video featured LEVAR FRAKKING BURTON saying “And I just read all of that on Wikipedia”.
    That has to be worth at least 30,000 awesomeness points right there. That totally cancels out any other negative feelings I may have had about this.
    Reading Rainbow + A Modern Geek Reference = Pure Glory.

38. See, I can relate with you on a few levels here. Like I said in my post way up there somewhere, to the untrained eye, I was one of the “cool kids” in High School, but outwardly, I never attempted to be anyone but myself. I honestly didn’t know that the other kids I went to school with considered me to be popular until I went to my 10 year reunion. I’m not a stereotype, and I absolutely refuse to subscribe to the mindset that you’re either a geek or something else entirely, because that would be bullshit.
    In my heart of hearts, I am a geek and damn proud to be one. That’s why I stood up for the so-called “geeks” I went to school with, because no one else would. I wasn’t in the school band, but I had friends who were. I was, however in the literary club, drama, chorus, stage crew and served on both the Junior and Senior Prom Committees. I didn’t join the Prom Committees because I thought I was popular, I joined to be the voice of the other “outcasts” like me who weren’t into commercialized pop or rap music. And this was a Catholic school, no less.
    My best friend was gay and wasn’t able to be himself, which I thought was so wrong on so many levels. I was constantly picked on by the administration for being into punk, ska and heavy metal, D&D and having a humanitarian outlook instead of following the other sheep in the flock and taking things on blind faith.
    Yes, I do know what it feels like to be ostracized, just not by my peers. By grown adults with narrow minds that continuously tried like hell to repress everything that makes me who I am as a human being, and it sucked. Hardcore. I’m still bitter about it, in case you can’t tell.
    So yeah, while I feel that I am mostly a geek, what I’m really proud to say I am at the end of the day is an individual.

39. p “It’s like a slap in the face to be associated with these people who claim to be like me, and want to be part of our culture, but couldn’t tell you [snip] how to use vi or emacs.”
    i I scoff at your mention of emacs! Only the mentally challenged, or the wannabe geek uses emacs! It is a slap in the face to be associated with these emacs users who claim to be like me, and couldn’t tell you how to use the one true editor.
    –chuck
    !:wq

40. Geek != D&D or Star Trek or technical affinity. It is not what we do, it is who we are.
    Geek (for me) always equaled being ostracized for being different for being “smart” to make up for physical limitations (Ectomorphs unite!) and for liking things because they aren’t mainstream.
    Being a geek for me meant a LOT of alone time (almost completely sans friends until becoming a sophmore in high school). Getting my ass kicked for no reason. Running home after school to avoid said ass kicking. It meant crying for any number of reasons (lack of friends, sheer isolation, self-loathing, you name it), contemplating suicide for all of the above reasons and most of all it meant being a victim; weak and pathetic. My support network? Read the first sentence.
    And now you (not “you” Wil, *hug*) want to paint yourselves in MY colors because you think I make it look “cool?” Hardly. I f*****g EARNED being a geek. I have the emotional scars to prove it. Do you?
    So let’s recap shall we:
    Latent anger? Check. Familial issues? Check. Socially awkward to the point of near paralysis? Check.
    Today?
    I am successful in my career. I’ve struggled against and overcome many (most? I’ll have to ask my wife) of my personal challenges and am no longer “just” a geek. Like Wil, I’ve turned my “geekdom” into a positive, personal, badge of honor, something that I depend on to get me through the day. Damn right, I am a geek and I refuse to marganalize my experiences so others can call themselves geeks too. Get your own label. This one is ours.
    …
    Wait…before you sign off…yes, we’ve all seen “The Breakfast Club” we’re all unique and beautiful snowflakes, I get it. Tell you what, I won’t pretend to be a jock, you don’t pretend to be a geek and we’ll all go get a beer together. Fair enough?

41. Now I don’t know what to think. Just as Wil makes me finally feel okay embracing my geekiness, all these other people are taking control of the term.
    I’m just going to call myself a nerd, or a dork or something. I gotta come up with something that makes people totally cringe, so they’ll leave me alone.
    Smelly?
    Dork?
    Crazy eyes?
    Fart master slobber junky?
    Needs work. But I’ll think of something.

42. Amen, sister! I could not have said that better if I even contemplated trying. To me, geek is open to the eye of the beholder. There are so many different kinds of geeks that to attempt to define or put a lump sum on it as a whole would be completely missing the point. New Media, itself is not what defines me as a geek. What defines my geekiness is just me. I can’t say it any other way.
    Books, video games, graphic novels, science, science fiction, fantasy, RPG, and technology to some degree, I’m into all of those things, and love all of those things and yet there is still so much more to me that have absolutely nothing to do with geek culture at all. I think what matters most to me, though, is that other geeks get me, which is why I feel a connection with other geeks. And I could not be in any better company.

43. I have been trying for 30 minutes to form my thoughts about this subject, but I as so conflicted I do not know where to start.
    I am glad that my kids can do the things that I did as a kid, and not get shoved in lockers, not get gum stuck in their hair, not get half-full beer cans thrown at them by passing jocks in Camaros. I am glad that when someone calls them a “geek,” they can smile, rather than wait to get spat on and called a “fag.”
    But when I see these so-called celebs claim to be geeks, it pisses me off. Did they pay the same price I did? How dare they claim my badge!
    Woa… hello childhood anger.
    So, I suppose that is MY problem with this video. I took my badge of shame and made it into a badge of honor, and in the process I applied my own definition to the term. My definition has room for sub-categories (car geek, sci-fi geek, game geek) but the core definition does not have room for the cool, popular, jock types. So is the problem with them, or with me?
    Yes.
    As the definition of “geek” changes in culture, how I define myself and my culture will have to change as well. This might be painful.
    Looks like I need my own blog post on this.

44. I have worked in different research fields, always being the new comer learning the terminology of the sub-culture and trying to fit in. I have been the person viewed as “trying to jump on the band wagon”; the person who is not really “one of us”.
    But you know what helps? Not making fun or belittling what others do and just trying to understand. I have aquired some awesome mad skills and experiences from trying on someone elses culture for a while.
    as i say:
    Those people more geeky than me will think that i am not really a geek. Those less geeky than me will think that i am a complete geek.

45. I still have yet to see the point of what they are trying to achieve. The whole site appears geared just to harvest money for this charity (a noble one for sure) and yet the video doesn’t mention the charity at all. There are no stated goals or reasons for the site existing and there is nothing to do there.
    Do they have future plans? What are they? The whole thing does come off as a bad marketing sham (especially since I have no clue who half the people in the video were – and they put down D&D which makes me sad)
    Feel sorry you have put your name to something that didn’t come out quite the way you expected. Did you not get a chance to view the final video before release?

46. Oh boy, I’m an old timer so for me the entire geek and nerd culture has dramatically changed. To me a geek is defined by his behaviors and actions, it is still somewhat of a lifestyle thing but its more about an individual choosing to embrace technology and learn a practical application for it. Merely playing WoW or bookmarking cool websites by my definition is not a geek.

47. True, I did not express myself clearly… attacking the basket using the baseline terrain to gain an advantage should give you a bonus, technically lowering your THAC0. I think. Honestly I never got to really *play* D&D so my rulebook memories are hazy in some regards.
    And the gym in question was Jessie’s back yard, where the baseline not only had foliage but also Clyde. Who may drool on you.

48. Well, Ozzy does play WoW. (Does too! I saw the commercial on TV so it must be true.)

49. JUST owning a Wii DOESN’T make you a gamer! Lots of people own Wiis just for Wii Fit and/or party games like Wii Sports. I’d approximate that 35% of Wii owners don’t use their systems 90% of the time. Being a gamer means more than just having ONE game system.

50. You know, I’m just glad for every opportunity to watch Felicia Day move and say words.

Comments are closed.