I've gotten a ton of criticism from people about the I Am a Geek video that launched yesterday, and I feel the need to respond to it.
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 was under the impression that this video would feature actual geeks who are important to our culture, like Woz, Felicia Day, Leo Laporte, and Jonathan Coulton. Instead, I saw a lot of entrepreneurs who have good marketing instincts, joined by a bunch of celebrities who are attempting to co-opt our culture because it's what their publicity team is telling them to do.
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. Those people are not geeks; they're celebrities who happen to use Twitter. Featuring them as "geeks" undermines the whole effort, because they aren't like us. I've been a geek my whole life. I've suffered for it, I've struggled because of it, and I've worked incredibly hard to remove the social stigma associated with all these things we love, like gaming and programming. 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 the difference between Slackware and Debian, a d8 and a d10, or how to use vi or emacs. In other words, they haven't earned it, but they're wrapping themselves in our flag because their PR people told them to.
Having someone in a video that purports to celebrate our geek culture say that they don't play D&D, like playing an RPG is something to be ashamed of, is profoundly offensive to me, because I play D&D. In fact, it's the chief reason I am a geek. D&D isn't anything to be ashamed of, it's awesome. I don't recall seeing that in the script I was given, and if I had, I never would have agreed to be part of this project.
I loved the idea of creating a video that celebrates our culture and shows that we're proud to be in it. That's what I thought this would be, but I feel like we ended up with some kind of self-promoting internet marketing thing that plays right into established stereotypes, and hopes that The Cool Kids will let us hang out with them.
I am a geek. I have been all my life, and I know that those guys are nothing like me and my friends. If we're going to celebrate and embrace geek culture, we should have geeks leading the effort, not popular kids who are pretending to be geeks because it's the easy way to get attention during the current 15 minute window.
I want to be clear: I wasn't misled, I think that the project just changed from conception to release. I think their heart was in the right place, and I think their fundamental idea was awesome. But what I saw isn't what I thought I was going to be part of. I thought I was going to be part of something that said, "Hey, I am a geek, I'm proud of that, and if you're a geek you should be proud of it too!" What I saw was more like, "I am using new media to reach people. Yay!" There's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't mean the people doing it are geeks, and it's not what I thought I was contributing to.
There was a great conterpoint on Twitter just now, while I was wrapping this up. Wyldfire42 said: "Seems to me that we shouldn't be deciding who is or isn't a geek. If we start passing judgment, we just become the bullies we hated." I can't disagree with that, at all, and after reading that, I feel a little grognard-y. Who knows, maybe these celebrities who have recently shown up in our world love these things as much as we do. Maybe it's not their fault that they bring hordes of celebrity-obsessed non-geeks with them wherever they go. Maybe they're as upset about people telling them they're not "real" geeks as I am about marketers pretending that they are.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I care deeply about my fellow geeks and there is a fundamental difference between embracing our culture and exploiting it. Please, come and be part of our culture. Read our books and play our games and watch our movies and argue with us about what is and isn't canon. But if you try to grab our dice, and then don't even know or care why we're a little touchy about it … well I cast Magic Missile on you, dude.
ETA: I've been pretty active in the comments of this post, because I see the same misconception over and over again, largely the result of me being unclear when I wrote part of this post.
Somehow, a bunch of people have turned into "Wil Wheaton says you have to do a, b, and c or you're not a geek, so fuck him because he's a dick."
That's not what I meant, at all. Most people seem to get that, but there's enough who don't that I feel a need to respond, in case you don't feel like digging through hundreds of comments to find my replies in there.
I never meant to say that unless you do a or b or c even ∏, you don't "qualify" for admittance to some super secret clubhouse where I am the gatekeeper. When I said, "…couldn't tell you the difference between Slackware and Debian, a d8 and a d10, or how to use vi or emacs…" I didn't mean that unless a person does know what these things are, they don't pass some kind of test. I was making an example, picking out some things that I happen to be geeky about, in an attempt to illustrate a point, and I did that poorly.
I was not trying to be, and I don't want to be, some kind of exclusionary geek elitist. That's just the most incredibly stupid and offensive thing in the world.
As I said in a comment somewhere in this post: Creating a world where my kids don't have to grow up being picked on for loving RPGs is awesome. But what I see – not just here, but in general at this moment – is a bunch of marketing jerks trying to take the things we love and turn them into something from Hot Topic. I didn't mean "you're not geeky enough…" at all, and I hate that people seem to latch on to that, because it means I wasn't clear enough. If these guys I mentioned truly love what we are, and they have been here all along (and I've just missed them for my whole life) than it's great that they're not ashamed to love the things we love … but I haven't seen anything to indicate that they genuinely are interested in the things we love as much as they are riding a pop-culture wave that's driven by Twitter's explosive and pervasive popularity. It feels calculated and planned out by PR and marketing people, and as someone who loves this culture, that bothers me. I didn't mean to imply that you have to meet this list of criteria to come be part of our club (vi, d10, etc) as much as I was attempting to illustrate a point: we know what at least some of those things are, and Cool Kids have teased us for it our whole lives. It feels to me like those same people are now trying to take our culture away from us and make a quick buck off of exploiting it, and us. It was not my intention to create some sort of Geek Literacy Test. That's lame. Like I said, all are welcome, but at least make an effort to understand why we care about these things.
Finally, I've been trading e-mails with Shira Lazar, who had this idea in the first place. She says:
Well, I think the hornet's nest was stirred up a bit. But that's ok. I rather open, honest discourse than people to feel shut off or alienated. That would be ridiculous and horrible.
Anyway- from reading the post and comments it's important off the bat for people to know this isn't a marketing ploy or some evil plan to take over the world. ha
also, It sucks that the d&d line got misconstrued. It's important to point out that a lot of ppl besides you in the video actually do play the game- the line was more to say yes lots of geeks play d&d but you don't need to play d&d to be a geek.
It really started as a fun way to bring people together, geeks of all extremes. To break down stereotypes. I consider myself a geek. Yes, the level of geekiness changes depending on the context. Amidst developers and my gamer friends, I might not know a lot but with some of my friends I'm queen geek. While I might not know certain things in certain situations, I still have a yearning and passion to know and learn and a love of accepting those geeks who do know it all. I was the editor of my high school newspaper and the first person to make it digital. I would hang out in my computer room at school until midnight working on photoshop and quark while my friends were out and about doing their thing. I participated in my high school science fairs and went to regionals twice. My mom is also a coordinator for children with special needs- i've seen kids that are alienated from their peers who need to know it's ok and they have a place.
While some of us have struggled and some have not, some know more, some don't- this was simply a video that was supposed to be a fun way to bring everyone together.
There’s an unspoken rule that this video seems to break, and until I see that rule broken, I never really think about it.
Being a geek means not caring what the cool people think about you.
That’s usually a self defense thing, and there’s usually some pain wrapped up in that.
But in this video, a bunch of geeks are suddenly turning that around and saying, “we *are* the cool people! It’s OK to be this way! You can suddenly drop your shields and let us all beam aboard because we’re all friends now, haven’t you gotten the memo?”
If the cool kids were wrong back then to ostracize us back in the day, can that mistake be so easily reversed by them suddenly wanting to embrace us?
Last year at the local Con, a guy in a business suit got up in front of the audience and said, “This thing I’m showing you has got to be fannish, right? Because fandom is all about being weird, and this is weird, so it must be fannish!” Nobody called him out on it then, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who resented his efforts to jump on my coat tails.
If I didn’t care what the cool people thought back when “geek” was a pejorative, how can I care what they think now that they suddenly want to be in my treehouse? It’s not about deciding who is and who isn’t a geek, that’s the kind of game the cool people love to play. It’s about deciding what is and what isn’t a geek. Making a lot of noise about how cool geek culture is, is *not* geek.
(FWIW, I’m not attacking your geek cred in any way, don’t misunderstand me. A zillion times a day, geeks do things that non-geeks also do. Getting laid, going to the bathroom, eating breakfast, and making choices we later regret. It’s not a cool-people-vs-geeks thing, it’s a human thing.)
I didn’t find your post to be “geekier than thou”. I think people can see a lot of different things in that video. That was what made it interesting to me. In that video you see folks who are well known geeks and others that are not known to be geeks, but do seem genuine. Others that are geeky, but not in the stereotypical ways (which is all I took the D&D comment to mean). I’m not naive though… so I’m sure some folks involved probably did try and tap into the culture for PR reasons. That doesn’t invalidate the project though. As an avid sci-fi/fantasy fan and gamer geek myself, I didn’t find anything in the video offensive, but I could see where someone who more strongly identifies themselves with some of the “I don’t X, but…” comments could.
My main takeaway didn’t have anything to do with validation of my choice in hobbies or lifestyle though, and I never thought “hey, I can send this to my popular friend so he can finally understand me”. Instead after watching that video and poking around a bit to see what was going on with you all on Twitter, I signed up (@caffn8d). I’ve always written Twitter off as a waste of time and thought the “celeb chasing” stuff was ridiculous, but after browsing the contributor page and seeing @’s for everyone I reconsidered. I liked the musings that you and Felicia posted. Free entertainment and a cool way to gain some insight into the sense of humor of the folks whose work you enjoy.
Good article Wil,
I agree with you on all parts. I am 37, spent most of my childhood and teen life being ostracized for my culture, my personality, my likings. I was not a jock, nor one of the cool kids. At a point in life when being a GEEK or NERD was a counter-culture you were thrust into un-willingly but came to accept and embrace as your own as you found that it worked for you.
To embrace the other side and fit in with the Ken and Barbies of the world meant to conform and become part of the mainstream. This is not the definition of GEEK.
Before we had a real definition and embracing, we were mocked and bullied for our ideals. I, thankfully, stood at 6′ 2″ during high school and was a very tall GEEK who because of my stature, thankfully, had something going for me in the realm of intimidation which kept my harassment down to mostly verbal and very little physical.
Nonetheless, I seriously doubt the likes of Shaquille O. and most of those other ‘stars’ within the video had to endure such dissings growing up.
I also like what Wyldfire42 said about (and I paraphrase) not deciding or passing judgement on these individuals because then we create this exclusionary group.
But we should also maintain and protect our identity to a degree. We earned our badges of honor with harassment and humiliation. While the cool kids were invited to drinking parties and after football game events, I spent my Saturday nights, holed up at a friends house, planning adventures and campaigns or rolling characters and developing skills. We traded comic books and talked about super powers and some of us (this author not withstanding) played with G.I. Joe well into the 8th grade (sad, I know).
I think we should embrace those who want to join and become part of our culture and educate them on what it means to truly be a geek. They may or may not find this culture to their liking and the wave of neo-geeks will pass us by and we will be left with our culture again. Then again – maybe this is where everyone gravitates towards. *SIGH*
My two cents.
Bill Teeple
San Jose, CA
That seems to be the bit that a lot of people have zeroed in on, and it seems to be the bit that a lot of people (maybe you, also?) have chosen to take as the only thing I said in this whole thing.
I was just using some examples of things a lot of my fellow geeks know and care about. Of course, you’re welcome to put in the thing you’re passionate about in place of any of those things.
I wasn’t attempting to be exclusionary or geeklitist, and I wasn’t attempting to create some kind of test you have to pass to get into the clubhouse. I was attempting to illustrate a point, and I did it very poorly and unclearly.
Wil,
First let me say thank you for being a voice for a lot of us. I cant say that I have much disagreed with any of the points you have made over the time that I have been reading your blog and your other works.
I am truly sorry that you felt exploited, that feeling just frikken sucks, and to feel that way over something that you felt you were doing in a positive light adds another dimension to the suck factor.
A lot of the replies to this post I believe have taken what you wrote completely out of context and a lot of people seem to have taken offense on some level or another… to those of you that do all I can suggest is that you re-read the post whilst taking a drink and breathing deeply. Realize that Wil is one of the few true geeks out there that has a powerful voice and presence that has helped to further the sub-culture that you are so proudly a member off. Get off the high horses and stop trying to compare who the bigger “geek”.
A suggestion Wil, I know you are crazy busy man, but have you thought of maybe making your OWN video a la the way they did theirs but using your friends, followers, fans? I’m sure you know a bunch of geeks that are out there that work in the media and can be recognized by non-geeks. Chris Hardwick for example. I think if you did/spear-headed something like that a lot of us that follow your blog would submit entries that could be tied together into a similar video that would better represent the geek in all of us.
Forever a Wheatonhead,
Frankie.
I have to admit, I felt pretty annoyed by the end of the video. Seeing a handful of known and respected geeks alongside people who clearly don’t have the foggiest idea what that means (MC Hammer, I’m looking at you) really got under my skin.
I’m not saying that I feel you must have played RPG’s or Atari Games, collected Star Wars figures, strutted around in Star Trek uniforms, collected a few hundred thousand MTG cards, and taken part in every single geek activity of the past 30 years or so to be considered a geek, but you damn well should know what these things are, and you better have at least taken part (and ENJOYED!) a few of these geeky activities in your lifetime if you’re going to go walking around pretending that “you were there.”
I love D&D (and have since 2nd edition), My beat up NES is still hooked up to my 61″ DLP, I have an Atari 800 and an Atari 2600 sitting in my basement next to a pair of Bally Astrocade systems, I’ve been playing MTG since the mid 90’s, and I’ve been a geek my entire life. I’m sure its incredibly selfish of me to say this, but it cheapens the entire experience to have people who know nothing about my culture pretending like its their own.
Also, on the Ashton Kutcher thing. I know almost nothing about the dude. I was originally with Wil… “Oh, he’s that jerk from Punk’d.” And that was it. And then seeing him in all those Nikon commercials I thought it was the usual celebrity endorsement thing. Turns out the dude is _really_ into photography (which with me being a photographer and a geek earns him some serious snaps), and promotes Nikon because he loves the photography.
> Don’t know if that’s even worth .02, but I’m a sucker for random trivia.
I think the concept of geeks as a sub-culture is part of the problem. There is no coherent list of things that defines a geek. It basically just boils down to someone who is passionate about gaining knowledge. It can be about nearly anything, and often crosses into areas that the majority of people dismiss as unimportant (or embarrassing) but doesn’t necessarily have to.
I’ve always considered myself a geek given my predilections for how to spend my time. However, I think I’m much more defined by how I treat and view those around me than I am what I choose to learn (or sometimes obsess) about. I have encyclopedic Star Wars knowledge, can program in several languages (though not well), spent all my electives in highschool in various vocal performance classes, and just played in a Magic: The Gathering tournament last weekend. However, I’ve never had trouble with finding girlfriends, or getting bullied, or developing a large and varied circle of friends. Does that mean I’m not a geek because I didn’t suffer? Does any of the knowledge I’ve gained in certain areas automatically make me a geek? I dunno… and I don’t worry about it because I’m enjoying life and don’t bother with labels.
I don’t mean to sound holier than thou here either. I completely understand how someone would strongly identify with something that “got them through” tough times where others in power made their lives difficult. And if having a particular set of experiences is what someone chooses to use as a definition of “geek” as a label, that’s fine. I would just prefer to leave the labelling to someone else and instead spend that time/energy elsewhere. Namely, on enjoying my interests while meeting other folks and celebrating the cool things that they are interested as well. Because honestly? Who cares whether you’re cool or a geek or a nerd or a jock when you can sit and talk about how awesome it was that your party barely pulled off defeating the Red Dragon via some lucky rolls? Or how much you both love acapella quartets? Or how you smiled the first time you saw “Hello World” print in bright green characters on your monitor?
Who has two thumbs and doesn’t give a crap? This guy. 🙂
Nerd. Dork. Dweeb. Spaz. Freak. Geek.
Nature or Nurture?
I only remember 4 things from the Intro to Psychology class I took 17 years ago. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Pavlov’s experiments with stimulus and response (ring a bell?), the Id, Ego, and Superego, and Nature vs. Nurture. Actually, I am pretty damned surprised I remember that much. Back to my thought…. I was sitting here, reading this post when the thought hit me, “What makes me a Geek?” Is it what I do, what I say, how I act, or is it just who I am? Was I born to this strange fate or was I somehow influenced by my friends, family, or social circles? Am I genetically predisposed to Geekiness, or did my upbringing somehow poison my fragile mind and bend it to the dorkside? Let’s investigate, shall we?!?!?
Let’s look at all of the labels that could have been put upon me while growning up (this would have been the late ’70s and the ’80s):
Nerd: (ref: did you know the word first appeared in the Dr. Seuss story If I Ran the Zoo!) No, not me. Nerds are socially awkward, a bit single-minded, not very physically inclined, and can be a bit oblivious. They are usually too smart for their own good and don’t understand why the world doesn’t see things just like they do. Most Nerds have interests or hobbies that are deemed strange, unusual, or just plain weird to the general populous. Nerds tend to live within themselves and only associate with other Nerds. As for me, I seemed to fit in, for the most part, in school. I was no outcast or pariah. I did play a number of different sports and did have an understanding of social circles and where/how I fit in.
Dork: A Nerd who doesn’t understand the basic points of social interaction and truly believes that what they like is actually of interest or importance to everyone else. They just can’t keep it to themselves, to the incredible annoyance of others. I played D&D, arcade games, read comic books, and enjoyed watching cartoons. I did not, however, dress up as Gyrhawk, the 12th level half-elf Ranger/Paladin on days other than Halloween, nor did I argue in public with my friends on the “legality” of using a pencil between your fingers when playing “Track and Field” in the arcade. Sadly, however, there was a point in time where I actually played “Gotcha” or “Assassination” while in school (you may have called it something else; a bunch of guys with dart guns sneaking around campus trying to “assassinate” each other). That aside, I was not a Dork either.
Dweeb: This is an interesting one. In my book a dweeb is just an undeveloped, or underdeveloped Nerd. A little Nerdling. Can’t be a Dweeb if you weren’t a Nerd.
Spaz: Take a Nerd or a Dork and add a strong dose of ADHD and Voila! No, I did not qualify as a spaz either.
Freak: You remember this guy. He was the one that sat in the back of the class, obsessed with reptiles, pouring Elmers glue on his skin, letting it dry, and then peeling it off like a second skin (I sat next to this guy, I think he is an Accountant now). This was the weird kid everyone was actually a little scared of. No, not me either.
Geek: May be a bit awkward socially, doesn’t really have friends outside of their social circle, has a single minded focus on things that are outside the social norm and is associated with that obsession; may be known as a “comic book geek,” “computer geek,” “band geek,” or “a/v geek.” Geeks can be athletic, good looking, and socially normal, they are just labeled by their devotion(s) to that which is seen as different, unusual, or strange. Harmless in the pursuit of their interests, they may even be looked upon for help under unique circumstances by others. Ahhh… this feels like home. Let’s go down the list:
– read comic books
– was in band
– played D&D
– dinked with computers early on
– played sports
– acutally dated (albiet I was 16 before I could get anyone to pay attention to me)
– was ALWAYS raising my hand in class to be the one to thread and run the filmstrip projector
– hung out with others like me
– Everyone knew I was guilty of all of the above
So yes, by definition I was a Geek. Now, I ask myself, and you, why?
My Mother and Step-Father were certainly not Geeks; a stay at home Mom and an Auto Mechanic. My Step Sisters – nope. My Step Brother – career criminal and redneck, about as far from Geek as you can get. Early on in school I remember associating with all kinds of kids and having friends across the spectrum, but as we got older and developed socially my friends seemed to be more and more like me. I started in the school band in 5th grade. Everyone was either required to take band, choir, music theory, or wood shop, so I was forced into band, but I stuck with it through high school (and loved it, by the way). Did the Geekiness of my band mates rub off on me or was I inclined to remain? I could have quit after 5th grade. Most did. I stayed because I liked it. I didn’t have friends that just happened to play D&D, I had friends that were friends BECAUSE they played D&D. I certainly wasn’t exposed to the latest and greatest in technology growing up, so that exposure certainly wasn’t a positive in the nurture column. My strange adept ability with all things audio and video? I certainly didn’t grow up in a TV repair shop.
The more I think about it, the more I am coming to realise that I was predisposed to be a Geek. This may not be you, but in my case, it has got to be genetic. I won’t be shocked if 20 years from now scientists, very geeky scientists, somewhere discover the “Geek” gene in our DNA.
So ask yourself, what brought you to this point? Was it nature, or was it nurture? Do you believe, as I do, that geekiness can be inherent and that you are predisposed at birth, or do you see social factors that influence you into this life, this calling, this existence some may know as Geek.
My fate, it seems, was sealed at birth.
Thank you Mom and Dad. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I think the line, “I don’t play Dungeons and Dragons, but it looks like fun,” should have immediately been followed by Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, Wil Wheaton, Stephen Colbert, all reciting, in chorus, “Well, I do, and it is.”
Anyway, the grognard in me wants to agree with you, but the side of me that doesn’t want the damn kids to get off his lawn is reminded of a very nice young geekess I know who has never played D&D (thinks it’s lame to sit around a table and pretend to be an elf) and thinks Tolkien is an overrated hack, but loves Conan and Robert E. Howard. She thinks Star Trek is stupid (although she admitted the new Trek movie was “fun,”) but she knows the entire back story to the Halo games and can discuss the meaning of the ending of Matrix Revolutions in great detail. She also loves to shop for shoes just as much as she loves searching eBay for deals on anime figurines.
I’d like to give the makers of the video the benefit of the doubt and think that they were trying to say, “Geeks come in all shapes and sizes,” but they sucked at saying it.
Hi
Wow that was pretty… disturbing! I’m not too sure how Geeks are treated in the United States (I’m from the UK), but the video came across to me as members of popular culture attempting to penetrate into the circle of “geeks”. This is almost certainly for publicity and marketing reasons, but its so obvious and shallow. In the UK, geeks don’t really need absorbing into the collective popular culture because we have a distinctive culture of our own which is confident enough to stand apart from the norm without the need to be patronised by those claiming to represent popular culture.
Besides, who defines that is “popular” and what is “geek”-dom? I enjoy RPGs, online activities, shows like Star Trek, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Battlestar Galactica etc and I don’t need to feel as though theres anything wrong with that! The fault is theirs for feeling as though we need to be endorsed by them to exist. I say NO!
Can we please highlight this? That would do more for Pen&Paper RPGs than anything else. A nicely edited video podcast (1hr) for a 4hr gaming session with commentary would be incredible.
Nice Scrubs reference at the end there 🙂
*twitches* I wouldn’t let most of those people touch my dice if they were wearing a gauntlet made of titanium. You’re right though there are so many real geeks out there who could have been in this video…It’s sad that they got passed over for the “cool kids”
I hope no one takes that piece as the only thing you said. I understand what you’re saying and think you have an absolutely valid point.
Something to think of, though, is that the people in this video (while frequently douchey, yes) could be earnest. Is that likely? Probably not. But who’s to say what people enjoy in their spare time? And if some college jock is able to identify with Shaq on being even the remotest bit geeky (whether Shaq is authentic or not), that’s a good thing. Perhaps he’ll be able to say, “yeah. You know what? I *do* like Star Trek, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
I just get nervous for those people that secretly enjoy a handful of “geeky” things and are able to get over their insecurities about it due to this geek-is-cool fad. What kind of cultural others would we be to dismiss new geeks because of how they stumbled upon the things we love, or why they are now able to say they love them, too? I’m not at all saying that this is what you were trying to get accross, Wil, but I can see how people might be sensitive to that. Geeks can certainly be a fickle crowd.
Anyway, I can see why this video’s turn was upsetting to you, but just think of that one jock or frat boy who might be reassured that the geeky thing in his life is an acceptable thing. The geek fad will pass, but perhaps his comfort level will have been solidified.
As someone who self-identifies as a geek, it seems to me that there are a lot of different types of geeks. My husband’s a wine geek. I have friends who are gamer geeks or computer geeks. I’m a composite sf/theater geek.
But I haven’t played an RPG since high school. I’ve got no idea what Slackware, vi or emacs are and only learned about Debian this year.
The video begins by defining their version of geek, “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 social acceptance.”
I think the use of celebrities makes complete sense. Think about the kids who were theater geeks in high school. None of them were the cool kids in school but chose to pursue skill and imagination. That choosing to embrace their geekdom can later lead to social acceptance is pretty darn cool.
Is the video perfect? No. But deciding that the celebrities are in it for publicity because they don’t look like your idea of a geek seems unfair.
I think the biggest downfall of that video is the Mega Cheesy Announcer Voice. It kind of craps all over whatever you might be feeling at the end.
For the record, I’ve never got into D&D because, during the era of Satanic Panic, my mom was convinced it was a gateway straight to hell and banned anything related to magic and casting spells in our house. She also told me ET was based on a demon in a witchcraft book, which was fine by me because ET scared the crap out of me from the get-go.
My point in all this is, I still managed to cultivate my geek roots with things like Star Trek (which WAS allowed in our house), TNG, DS9, and Quantum Leap. Heck, by the first grade, I was helping my dad teach an adult class about computers. (APPLE IIe in the house! “No, the disk goes in like this. BE SURE TO SHUT THE DRIVE!” And I kind of realize this scenario might come off sounding like I have mild Tourettes. I don’t.)
Long story short, I grew up geeky. Twitter, Facebook, my own dot com… I have a web presence and I use it. When I browse t-shirts at ThinkGeek, I don’t need an interpreter.
This video doesn’t offend me, but it does remind of me Reality Bites, when Ben Stiller takes Winona’s documentary and turns it into The Real World. It’s someone’s great idea run through the marketing mill.
But, then, the real geeks don’t need to watch a video to know the rest of us are out there.
Somewhat off topic, but hey, Wil, did you know you can follow one of the space shuttle astronauts on Twitter? He’s Astro_Mike.
Better watch it with those magic missile comments. If any non-geeks venture here, they may think you’re threatening them with something else…
Once again, I agree with you, Wil.
Not only does it bug me a little bit that I suffered through seven years of school wearing glasses and being called “four eyes” (which I don’t believe even happens anymore), but it also bugs me to see kids wearing “Star Wars” t-shirts (especially those “mock faded logo” ones which look like they’ve owned them for several years — instead of having just bought it from the local Target last week) and they’re not even old enough to have seen any of the original movies in the theatre. To me, it’s almost as if they haven’t suffered enough as geeks to be able to look like one now that there isn’t the same stigma anymore. 🙂
One prime example: I was in line opening night for “Jurassic Park” in May of 1993 and I was behind four younger guys (about 15 or 16 or so, maybe) who were all very excited to be first in line for something. I foolishly thought I could show off a bit so I told one of them that I had waited overnight in line for “Return Of The Jedi”. The guy I was talking to was stunned speechless. He nudged one of his friends and repeated what I said. The second guy’s response was (and I quote because I will never forget this), “Wow! What was it like to watch Jedi in the theatre!”
I suppose that meant, “You’re kinda cool, but dude, you’re also really old.”
That’s also one of the reasons I’m disappointed that many schools are taking away dodgeball in gym class. If I didn’t have a chance to avoid taking that weekly beating, then dang it, no one else should either. 🙂
Yes, I know, I’m a Beatles fan and they broke up when I was five so I can like some things that happened before I was aware of them, but it’s not like I’m wearing a t-shirt from one of their old concerts or something. 🙂
It almost doesn’t seem fair that being a geek like I was/am is more acceptable now than it used to be.
I know, I know. I figure I’m maybe five years away from (expanding on Wil’s earlier SNL reference) “We sang Christmas carols until our throats were raw and bleeding! We had one game and it was called ‘Staring at the sun’ and all we did was stare at the sun until our heads burst into flame!”
…or words to that effect.
What was with that “I’m not a nerd or a spaz” comment? Why are geeks arguing semantics when we inherited the name of the guy at the carnival sideshow who would bite the heads off chickens?
For what it’s worth, Shaq has clearly been a major Superman fan (anyone else even remember he did the movie Steel about a Superman spinoff character?) since before he hit it big. Does that make him a geek? Maybe. I don’t know if it’s just something he likes a lot or something he goes to some trouble to learn a lot about.
As for MC Hammer, I know that he visited the Googleplex back in 2004. From what I heard, he at least seemed interested in the tech he was shown.
I do agree that making use of social media/Web 2.0 doesn’t make one a geek. The non-geek who stood out in the video was Gawker darling Julia Allison.
Btw, Wil, was nice meeting you at the Nebulas (I was one of the folk who encouraged you to get on stage for the photo op and we chatted briefly afterwords).
And I’m pretty sure my geek cred’s up there with the best of ’em. A short credit list would include 4 time Western NC high school math champ, President of the North Carolina Chess Association at age 20, worked in a comics/sf bookstore in 1981, was one of the first hundred people on Usenet and thus on what became the Internet as of 1980, and have worked at, among other places, the MIT AI Lab and Google. I’ve also captained the Fan team at Comic-Con’s Pro/Fan Trivia Match each of its 10+ years and have outscored Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek on toss-ups in some matches. : -)
Oh God I’m not Fluent in Java or Klingon…*Sniff Sniff* I always thought I was geek, and now I find that I’m not…My whole life is a lie. *sob*
A geek is the guys hanging out in there mom’s basement playing rpg,ccg, or hell boardgames, the chic at the con with the point ears and funny costume, the teenagers in the park at midnight pretending to be vampires, the technogenius that you continually bug to fix your computer, the people that can debate for hours as to which is the better captain Picard or Kirk (and now which Kirk), drag up a quote from a popular moment for any and I do mean any occasion. Being geek is all of those things and so much more! A few years ago Seth Green would have been laughed out of a TV boardroom for the idea robot chicken now it’s one of Cartoon Networks most beloved show. Footage of Vin Diesel telling everyone who well listen that he’s a dice chucker and proud of it.I won’t say that being geek is now trendy. it’s easy to treat geek as a derogator word when we all deny it was our last breath. It’s a lot hard when we respond with yeah I am what’s your point.
I’ve been a geek over 30 years now. I didn’t embrace it until college. I didn’t own it until I was well into my 20s. 50 years from now I’ll still be quoting space balls, watching Trek and Star Wars, and they will pry the dice from my cold dead hands. And then I’ll zombie it to yell at them for touching my dice.
Ok my opinion…the society for the advancement of geeks appears to be nothing more than a fundraiser endeavor for building these reading rooms. Which is of course a noble cause, but has precious little to do about geeks. The program should be called the society for the advancement of reading. One would think that a group that was for the advancement of geeks would have information relating to geeks, but that’s just me.
Hmmm. I think for once I am at a complete lose for intelligent words. And for someone who makes a living out of talking, that is rare.
When this was posted yesterday and I watched the video, I had a huge sense of uneasiness, because even so being labeled a geek all of my life has some draw backs, I wore that label/badge proudly. Nothing makes me smile more than when someone (especially my kids) calls me such a geek or you’re weird. I have always been proud to be non-mainstream and beat my own drum and to be damned with what anyone else thinks. Now its great that people are trying to make the label positive instead of negative as it has been in the past. What really blows about this whole thing is the way it has been executed. I feel like I have been sold out by some ad company. I feel as if my peers (regardless of the geeky things they do to get themselves labeled as geek) have been sold down the river as well as the new “in thing”. I feel as if the video has done a huge disservice and has not done what maybe it intended to do. I am really not explaining this right, because after reading all 200+ comments, I am more sad than anything at the moment.
This video had spawned an idea for my Geeky Pleasures show on Friday (What are the thing that make you geek or something along those lines) but now I don’t think I can because this whole thing appears to have spawned a holy war of sorts. And that was NOT the intent of it at all. It certainly was not Wil’s intent when he posted this blog. How sad it is when normally a nice close community is all of a sudden fighting with each other because of something that unites us, our extreme uniqueness.
I am sad and Wil thank you for continuing to be voice even if at times your voice is misunderstood.
I think this video has its finger on the pulse of what is happened, the cool kids have become the geeks…I mean not literally just like every kid wheres converse these days, the subculture or mutation of the subculture has become popular/mainstream. For those comic con veterans think back 5 years, it was still packed (not like last year which was OBSCENE) but full of people like us. I think at my first sd con I saw lots of classic nerds, fanboys, parents,and normies geeking out. Now you see people strutting around in ed hardy shirts vying for a chance at witnessing self promotion from their fave celeb. It is chock full of the cool kids who have embraced the notion of geek or fanboy culture. It used to be a very geeky trait to take an active role in pop culture, to discuss it, anticipate it, I think you could argue it is now a societal norm. RPG’s will always have a stigma because adults can’t understand creativity. I have been playing D&D for a long while now and as my 10 year brother grew older and showed an affinity for writing, rules, and fantasy culture I thought it would be right up his alley. He embraced it whole heartedly, much to the chagrin of all my siblings who just don’t get it and have made me promise not to teach roleplaying to any of their kids. LARPing carries even more of a stigma, even within geek circles, because it is so difficult for people to imagine playing dress up anymore. As geek interests have gone mainstream, comics, trek, tech savviness, what makes someone a core geek anymore? and was it really based on what they were into to begin with? does geekness stem from attitudes or interests?
oh and while we are trying to define the undefinable…can we answer the question of when gamer came only to mean video gamers. I have always considered myself a gamer not because I play video games (because I don’t modern games give me motion sickness) but because I role play and larp. But in recent years it seems that we’ve gotten away from gamer being a general term for any kind of gaming to just video games. Now we are dice chuckers, table top players, larpers, ccg gamer. I’d kind of like to take back gamer for all of us.
I think that video was a bit exploitative and I would be pissed to be part of it too. It’s not blatant in it’s subversion of the Geek society, but after reading what you said and then viewing it, I can see why you would be upset.
Kevin Pollack a Geek? Whatever. Kevin Peirera a Geek? Hell yeah and I bet he’s pissed of a little with the video also. Where’s Chris Hardwick? Oh yeah, he’s a self proclaimed Nerd.
It’s not going to ruin a Geeks life or anything, but to be pooled in with those watered-down Geeks at best, is a little insulting. Thanks for clearing up what you thought about the video, I might have considered you a mild douche bag for being in that, but you stood your ground and expressed yourself unflinchingly, which is why you will always be one of my Geek leaders. Stay cool and you know there’s a twelve step program for people addicted to buying dice.
Michael
Isn’t it interesting to find all these people complaining about what makes you a Geek, what you think makes you Geeky in your own blog? I do. I think the people that complain the most are the most unsure of themselves and can’t stand to be told what makes YOU, Wil Wheaton a Geek. What you wrote on your blog wasn’t a mission statement for the rest of us Geeks, it was your personal opinion on something that bothered you and you wrote it from your own personal thoughts, which is what America and the internet is all about.
I never once thought you were defining what it means to be a Geek to the rest of us and I don’t think you should have to defend yourself as much as you do. You were defining what being a Geek means to YOU. Which is all we, as your loyal followers, should expect from you.
I understand you want to make yourself clear to the rest of us and I appreciate that, but I think that you might be defending yourself to people that can’t define themselves as being Geeks very well. It’s like trying to define Alternative music back in the early to mid nineties. You just couldn’t do it without pissing someone off. You aren’t going to make everyone happy and you are entitled to your own personal opinion and I applaud you for speaking your mind.
Oh yeah and I happen to agree with almost everything you said. I have no fucking clue how to program my computer and I don’t speak Python or Klingon. I do have all of my 2nd edition D&D books and I still play twice a week, but I also was in a band in High School which should have singled me out as the NON Geek, but I tried my best to hang out with the REAL people who were my friends and not let my guitar get me laid all the time.
Great post, keep telling us like it is. I like to hear what you think, not what you want us to think you think or a edited version of your thoughts. Don’t let the rest of us, including me, stop you from being who you really are.
By the way I rolled my “Save vs. Spells” so the Magic Missile did nothing to me.
Michael
I realize I’m late to the party, but having not heard anything about this “movement” before reading Wil’s blog entry and then having watched the video, I can honestly say “What the **** is that ****?”. Seriously, it needs a “The more you know” at the end of it. Total and complete crap designed to exploit “celebrity” to sell products.
You’re right. The more I think about this, the more sick to my stomach I feel. I was told this would be part of a video that celebrated our culture, and nothing more; certainly nothing about selling anything, even if it’s nominally part of a charitable effort. I feel like I sell out who didn’t know he was selling out.
Ok last post I think I hope.
I think being Geek is undefinable. There are far to many sub groups to count. For years people thought I was goth. Like the clothes yes. Like the music some of it. Goth not so much. Being goth was a state of mind I just don’t have. Being geek is the same thing. It’s a state of mind. Either you are or you’re not. No harm no fool either way.
But re-occuring characteristic of a geek seems to be the ability to endlessly debate the relative merits of pretty much any subject. That being said we are a prime example of that characteristic. Here we sit at our computers around the world and debate who and who isn’t a geek and what exactly it means to be a geek. I think we have acheived our geek quota for the day.
Have a lovely day everyone.
I don’t think you should blame yourself. Your line (and others’) individually are funny. They’re the types of things I’d use in a Dragon*Con TV spot. But the video as a whole has the “see, autistic kids are special too!” feel, which is similar to your cool kids comment I suppose.
I wouldn’t beat myself up too bad if I were you (I know probably easier said than done). But it is not clear at all unless you start doing the clicky clicky of links.
And the intent of the “movement” appears to have changed since they approached you about it. It was suppose to be a rip off of the “I am Canadian” commercials (which being Canadian I have issues with for different reasons but that is a whole different issue). But then it states something about we had this really cool idea to make geek chic and then decided Hey why not promote some charity while we are at it and turn it into a social movement.
The fact they decided to not inform the people who participated in it that the intent had changed is down right ugly!
You my friend were unfortunately taken advantage of and that is just… well a whole bunch of mean ugly words come here.
This angers me to no end.
or maybe some people were informed (the “cool” kids) while they left the others, those had the right intentions in the dark.
I just laughed. This was a good idea until marketing got wind of it. No harm done Wil. If kids start thinking it’s cool to be smart, that’s fine.
I’ll go back to yacc ing up KlingonScript. It features expressions where a d between any two numbers is a valid random number.
This blog post has to be one of the “Greatest Moments in D&D History.” Probably somewhere between D&D’s appearance in “E.T. The Extra-terrestrial” and Futurama’s “Bender’s Game.”
Totally agree. When I went there, before even playing the vid I just kind of sat and gaped for a moment, like …Are they joking?! WTF is this crud?! Geek advancement?!?!
Yeah, I think the vid and site are both ridiculous.
Yeah seriously, what in god’s name is up with people claiming Twitter as geeky?! EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER is on Twitter (I still cannot fathom why but that is beside the point), how is that remotely geeky?! bleh.
To me, a geek is someone who pursues an interest beyond the socially accepted bounds of “normal.” They actually have that definition, in the beginning of the video, but then ignore it.
Being a “geek” can never be popular, because if it’s popular it’s not geeky. If people are playing DnD because it’s become mainstream, plaing DnD is no longer geeky (although in and of itself, you can still be a DnD geek, by all means). Playing WoW did not make Felicia Day a geek; deciding to make an internet series based on geeky people who play WoW is what makes her a geek. The fact that a bunch of marketers are trying to say that “geek” is cool doesn’t make it so. A more accurate statement would be something like: “A lot of activities that were previously only enjoyed by geeks, have now become acceptable to modern society.” Social networking, by the way, is definitely NOT inherently geeky; nor is having an iphone that one is “plugged into” all the time, since these are things that pretty much every American teenager seem to do.
The biggest problem I have with that video is that the people focused primarily on what they “don’t” do, rather than what they “do” do, that makes them a geek. And since the only ones I recognized were JoCo and Felicia Day; I’d certainly be hard-pressed to say whether or not the rest qualify as geeks. And if it was trying to promote literacy, I completely miss how.
I do want to say however, that your view of “geekdom” seems to me to be rather narrow and I remember rather distinctly seeing you at Pax one year delivering a speech that implied that A) you are a gamer b/c you played in a lot of arcades as a kid and B) that those who didn’t aren’t, both points of which I disagreed with, especially since, to me, you were just the actor who happened to play that annoying kid on Star Trek. Geeks and gamers are not necessarily the same, but the point IS, which is that you have to know a person to be able to say whether they are or aren’t something, and there are many different types of each. Being a jock does not negate geekdom, nor does being attractive, being prom queen, or even being a famous actor on a very popular TV show.
I personally doubt that the majority of the people in that video were geeks, but maybe they are; it doesn’t really matter though, because the video is still awful. I think the only line I liked was the one about owning a wii != gamer.
I remember writing a blog entry that said virtually the same things when Wired did their yearly “Sexiest Geek” thing, which never includes more than one or two real geeks and mostly consists of people who happen to vomit their commercial crap over YouTube.
It’s like being a Goth (way back when): 99% of them were pretenders who didn’t understand that The Cure’s “The Kiss” could explain your entire life, and that no one could ever be sexier than Siouxsie.
Sometimes I think it’s partly an age gap thing as well. Like using “1337” instead of “l33t” – I still think the former is wrong, but it seems to be the ‘new’ geek way of writing it. And accepting that a celeb is a “geek” because they play WoW. Um, hello? Something tells me they’re not doing the math to figure out the ideal combination of skills and spells or playing on an RP server, in character.
Being a geek is a very personal thing. I think ANY advert or lifestyle-type video, club, book, film or other medium is going to fail on that front – simply because few geeks have anything in common.
That’s why we get along so well: we love the difference and the fact that – when we need it for a calculation – someone else actually does know the value of Pi to 47 decimal places. Off the top of their head. Anyway, I’m rambling. It’s late.
The point is that as long as you were happy with the original thought, it’s cool. The end product is not your fault: it’s the result of some lack-brained marketing exec’s desire to produce a putrescent pile of purulent pus. 🙂
One last thing: am I the only one who’s amused as hell at the idea of Shaq trying to use vi? Geek? PAH! Not a hope.
Ya know what this discussion reiterates for me? No? I’ll tell you. It reminds me that, as geeks, predisposed to be passionate for the things we grok, cannot agree on anything.
Can’t we just all agree that Star Trek TOS, TNG, TWOK, new movie, Star Wars (let’s start with part IV), new BSG, Firefly, Wargames, 2001, LOTR (book and movie) are all immensely full of win?
No?
Frak you!
😉
yes yes true true and true
but
the real GEEKs know who the other REAL geeks are
so you really shouldnt worry about it
a lot of people will want to “jump on the train”
because being a GEEK/NERD/TECHNOLUSTER/whatever you wanna call it
is somehow becoming more “cool” and mainstream
just like eating organic LOL
😀
I’ll be honest, I haven’t read all of the comments, but since someone posted a link to my story, I felt I should reply.
As the guy who met Shaq, I gotta say that he definitely had some geekiness to him. Of course it all depends on your personal definition of the word “Geek”.
I didn’t go in to a lot of detail about the phone in my story. It’s not really all that important in my mind, but as we walked up, he grabbed my AT&T Fuze out of my hand.
“What is this?” he asked me. It took me a second to answer. If I were face to face with a normal geek I’d say, “It’s an HTC Raphael running a modified version of WinMo 6.1, with the Rhodium version of the Touchflo 3d ported over”
But this was Shaq. So I just said, “AT&T Fuze.” He sighed and looked at me for a moment as if to say, “I’m not an idiot” and then said, “Windows Mobile?”
“Uh… yeah”
I was pretty surprised. We talked about the phone for a moment, and also had a brief discussion about his G1. My friend Sean, eager to get in on the discussion whipped out his iPhone, but Shaq sort of dismissed it with a wave of his hand. I’m not honestly sure if he didn’t like the iPhone, or if he was just saying, “Yeah, been there done that.”
I guess my point is, while I’d guess Shaq isn’t playing D&D on the weekends, and he probably doesn’t even know what a Magic Missile is, he definitely deserves more geek cred than I would have given him.
I am the opposite of everything you just wrote.
Never had a great desire to devote myself to programming languages or becomming profecient with computers but I read books both of sci-fi and fantasy they were my constant companion’s from middle school all the way through high school and even into my few years at a community college.
Thanks for comic books and to writers such as Asimov and Heinlin,I gained an appreciation for computer’s and even a fascination for them, they were far beyond my grasp to obtain in my late teens and twenties and were only for those who had an affluent lifestyle.
But I gamed not only fantasy role playing but milatary r.p.g’s as well as technological games from f.a.s.a.,Gurps r.p.g’s as well as the Steve Jackson games.
I only just began my foray into computing a little over 7 yrs ago and I only have a rudimantary understanding of all the things this device can do, and my first introduction into all things electronic were from game consoles which in my case began with Atari cartridge games in the late 70’s and early 80’s,none of which I ever owned but always played at somebody else house.
So in the technology department I am far behind even when compared to my peer group.
I also disagree with you in that geek is simply a devotion, it is a real lifestyle that was once an undercurrent of mainstream trends,although not as much as it once was.
I would never have admitted to any one in my middle or high school that I played role playing games or that in my stack of school books was Roger Zelazany’s book “Lord Of Light” or “Thieves World” series of book’s
It hasn’t been until the internet age and game console’s that brought the r.p.g.’s that I played only as a pen and paper to the masses and made them acceptable amoung the mainstream much in the way that film and television have done for comic books.
Maybe it isnt soo much that geekness encompasses a majority of people but that there are different levels of geek.
So many of my co-workers both in the past and in the present that would do a double take if I mentioned annything about A.D.&D or M.T.G, let alone that I play W.o.W.
It is a different lifestyle but it has grown in popularity,in my opinion due to the fact that there were soo many in my peer group that were geeks then and who are now programmers and marketing, production managers for the various media in which geek thrives.
(please excuse the poor writing skill’s I would much rather read then write.)
Never got as far as A.D.&D 2.1 never found any one too play 3 or 4.
The pod cast is great.
Wil, your dark brooding avenger is spot on!
Sincerely hope that you will put more of your game up, you guys ROCK!
well said !!!
In my base line was dad’s 66 Pontiac more than enough cover if you ask me,also are we taking into consideration the bonus to hit from enchanted weapon!
In my case it wasn’t so much about what others thought about my being geek as it was that you would be verbally and physically repressed in some instances for even using dialogue from Asimov to give some credit for your viewpoints on topiics of the day!
I twitter’d Wil in where does sports fit into geek?
It is onnly a question in that I never played sports in school,every once in a while my older brother and I would play with the kids on our street back in my elementary day’s.
Now that would be something absolutely fantatsic too see,having Ash,Shaq,Wil and the other high profile geeks show up in someone’s living room to play out an a.d.&d arc would be just coolness to the extreme!