Image via Fresh Cargo
It’s apparent to everyone at this point that the geeks
have inherited the earth, right? I mean, no one doubts that anymore. When I was
a kid, it was an unthinkable concept. Sure, everyone loved Star Wars, but not everyone was obsessed with it. Reading comics or
playing role-playing games had all sorts of social stigma that you didn’t want
to deal with unless you were so into those things that loving them was worth
the dishonor. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the war Star Trek fans waged to be known as “Trekkers”
instead of “Trekkies,” as if that was somehow cooler. We don’t have to deal with
any of that anymore. But in a world where liking geeky things is the norm, what
does the “geek” label (or “nerd,” if you prefer; I use them interchangeably)
mean anymore?
The Mary Sue ran an article on this,
which is part of why I’m writing this. I was already thinking about it, but it
was the Mary Sue piece (written by Becky Chambers) that pushed me toward my own
keyboard. In it, Chambers decides that geekdom is defined by being interested
in details. “All of these things are chock-full of tiny little
details,” she writes, “just waiting for a curious mind to patiently examine
them. Want to write code? Mind the details. Want to develop a good strategy in
a game? Pay attention to the details. Really like that sci-fi book you just
read? You’ll enjoy it even more when you look at the glossary and the galaxy
map. They’ve got tons of details.” And she’s right of course, but I also think
that she’s missing part of the picture.
Chambers is still focused on traditionally geeky stuff:
science, genre fiction, role-playing, etc. The truth though is that everyone is
geeky about something. This is an old observation, but sports fans are total
nerds. I’m not just talking about the ones who join fantasy leagues either, but
the ones who follow all the teams, know all the players, and can quote all the
stats. I’ve felt a lot of social pressure over the years to be “into” sports,
but have resisted because I just couldn’t get into the detailed minutia the way
my sports-geek friends were. Going to a ball game with them was like going to
the comic book store with That Guy; the one who wears the Captain America
T-shirt and will not stop talking about which Green Lantern is the best.
Chambers is correct that it’s all about the details, it’s just that everyone
obsesses about something: comics, sports, movies, or scrapbooking.
Knowing that, I wonder if it’s not time to retire these
terms as identifiers. Rick Remember recently tweeted,
“I'm calling overdone on comic folks self-applying ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’.” I think
I agree. When everyone is a thing, does that thing even need a label anymore?
