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Definition of "Geek"
How do you guys define the word "geek"? Somebody who is interested in technology, or somebody involved in certain geekeries? Or something else? I consider myself a geek, and am proud of it, but people I've met seem to have different ideas of what a geek is.
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The more modern usage of the term geek refers to anyone with strong feelings towards any number of hobbies or interests. You see, most people in this lame society aren't interested in anything. Or maybe they are interested, but they don't get deep into anything. They just casually watch TV, read the newspaper, go to movies, etc. but they don't go all out. You wont see them chatting on forums, listening to podcasts, or reading websites to learn every last detail about something. You wont see them making fanart or collecting memorabilia. They're not geeks.
A geek is someone who does these things and more. Let me give an example. I like model rockets. I like to build them and launch them. I'm pretty good at it too, although I haven't done it in years. I am not a rocket geek. John Carmack however, is nuts about rocketry. He even tried for the X-Prize I think. He is a rocket geek.
Someone who watches Cowboy Bebop on TV is not an anime geek. Someone who goes dressed as Spike Spiegel to a convention is an anime geek. Someone who plays Madden is not a video game geek. Someone who plays all the Maddens from all years and for all the systems then writes a blog comparing them all is a geek.
Most geeks are what I call singleton geeks. They have one major geekery. Gamer geek, gearhead, airplane geek, HAM radio geek, movie buff, etc. Me and Rym consider ourselves rennaissance geeks. We know about anime, video games, technology, board games, rpgs, asian cinema, sci-fi books, Star Wars, cartoons, you name it.
A trekkie goes off the high dive into the swimming pool that is Star Trek. We rennaissance geeks dunk our heads in many pools we come across. Non geeks barely get their feet wet in anything. I maintain that you can be considered a geek no matter what your interests are. Although what those interests are may or may not be a good thing.
Oh, nerds are bad. Nerds are those people who know way too much useless stuff, get straight A's in school, have no social skills and are generally painful to stand within 10 yards of.
Thus, when you have one very deep geekdom, it's difficult to communicate with those that don't share your interest; this is where the stereotypical socially inept geek comes from. Rym, Scott, myself, and many other people we know are "renaissance geeks," who delve fairly deeply into a wide variety of geekdoms. We might not go as deep as the singleton geek, but we have so many interests that we can communicate very effectively with a wide variety of people; hence, there is a "new wave" of geekery that involves having social skills and trying different things.
A lot of people still only recognize the stereotypical singleton geek, but that's probably because the "renaissance geek" seems to be a fairly recent development.
Perhaps in the interests of clear communication, we can dub those of the renaissance geek persuasion "neo-geeks." We generally shake off the old antisocial stereotypes while maintaining solid passions about our various geekeries.
I remember in my childhood I changed between geekdoms quite often. I barely managed to keep more than one at a time. First it was video games and cartoons mostly. They both involved sitting in front of the TV so I could do both. Then came comic books and the video games took somewhat of a back seat. I remember PC gaming ousted console gaming. Computer programming ousted comic books. Anime ousted other television viewing. Tabletop gaming also ousted video gaming at some point. It was a mixed bag. Throw Magic: The Gathering and even some sports in there. It wasn't easy.
Yeah. Nowadays it takes maybe 5 minutes per day of Internetting to stay on top of one of these geekeries. Long live the Intarweb.
The strange thing is that it's a word that was used to describe a minority, by people not in that minority, in an abusive way. Yet, in a special way, it has been adopted by the people in the minority as a way to describe themselves. Other rare examples are words like queer and nigger. Both are terms used to describe a minority in an abusive way, yet were taken on by that group to talk about themselves.
Suddenly we are proud to be geeks, and there's Beauty and the Geek on TV. I wonder which group will be next. Probably the retards ;)
Geeks are or can be eclectic. Nerds, not so much.
It is fun to get a rise out of someone but it is cheap entertainment.
Though the looking back at the old threads was kinda cool.
On the other hand, I don't think you can really be a "geek" for ANY subject. Actually, I'm having a hard time coming up with a subject that you can't be a "geek" about...anyone have any ideas?
Also, I find that while I enjoy a lot of geek activities, I usually just engage at one at a time. I'll either be reading a ton of manga and neglecting other things, playing a ton of video games and nothing else (what I'm doing now), watching a lot of anime and skipping the video games...stuff like that. Between work and school I do have free time, but not enough of it that I can delve deeply into all of those things.