Your thoughts on... Nerd/Geek culture of today.

[balladbird]

*shrug* I can't speak to the online culture, since this forum is the only place I really mingle with it. Gaming has always been a solo exercise for me, and thus I avoid multi-player venues like a plague. I know enough about -chan, reddit, and tumblr cultures to know that imbibing any of them would be bad for my blood pressure, and while I occasionally check the twitter feeds of youtube celebrities and the like for progress updates, I neither have twitter myself nor any desire to ever remedy that.

Offline, however, I'm happy to say that I've seen nerd culture flourish. In the fifteen years I've been attending cons there has been a multitude of changes. People are generally friendlier and more outgoing. There's a lot more cosplay and positivism. Perhaps the greatest change of them all regarding cons I attend now versus the cons I attended way back when: I can actually walk through them without choking on the stench of stale body odor!

Nerds on the internet are quick to condemn things like "the big bang theory" and portrayals of nerds in popular media, but those things have caused a huge influx of interest in things like anime or comics. Some purists may detest this trend, but for me: Casual or no, any circumstance that increases the number of people I can talk with about things I'm passionate is a good circumstance.

In my experience, as long as you're friendly and entertaining about it, you can even rectify some of the more common misconceptions a casual fan may have about something, and help them become a little more invested in the material. For instance, on two occasions I was able to discuss Aquaman at length, with people who fell under the assumption that he was lame because of references in shows like TBBT. We discussed his lore for a while, had a good time, and left in a good mood. The other day one of them even started talking to me about one of Aquaman's comic storylines.

 

[Random Gamer]

Well, considering what a sizable share of the posters here actually stated, I guess it's a good thing the Code of Conduct were rewritten, because once ago they speficially stated that we shouldn't insult members or *groups* posters here were members of - a far larger cover than merely stating "don't insult races, religions, sexual orientations and disabled people".
Though there's still a fair number of posts that seem to me to be pretty close to breaching the "You may not post anything that is reasonably considered discriminatory towards other members" part; but apparently it's fine since we have a mod chiming in

 

[Josh123914]

A minefield of emotionally volatile, socially retarded, self-loathing, bullying waifs, pathetically lacking in empathy, who occasionally gravitate close enough to one another to become something like friends before something is said or done that causes unbridgeable enmity between them for the remainder of their lives. The longer you stare, the worse you become.

Let it die. Don't engage with it, don't embrace it; push it away and shun it like a poisoned cup. Find quality people, people with morals and standards, hold them close and make your own community. Much more good will come to you that way.

Spoiler: my face reading this

You moderate a website all about geek culture, and you want said culture's death. How do you do it?

 

[RedDeadFred]

It's no longer fun and quirky. You get vitriol thrown at you for not liking the same things as another person. You know what happens when I tell an Oilers fan that I'm a Flames fan? We both joke about how shitty are teams are and reminisce about some of the more entertaining battles the two teams have had. It's really weird, but these days, I'd say the majority of the bullies come from the nerds rather than the jocks. Maybe it was just my school, but jocks tended to be the nicer, more inclusive people, whereas the nerds were more likely to bite your head off for not owning the same damn console as them. Of course, that was several years ago and I wouldn't be surprised if it's just perpetuated itself. Who knows though, this could all just be the whole "grass is greener on the other side" thing and every culture in general is equally shitty.

Then there's all the other.... stuff. I don't want to get into it because of how polarizing it is, but I'm sure others will.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

A minefield of emotionally volatile, socially retarded, self-loathing, bullying waifs, pathetically lacking in empathy, who occasionally gravitate close enough to one another to become something like friends before something is said or done that causes unbridgeable enmity between them for the remainder of their lives. The longer you stare, the worse you become.

Let it die. Don't engage with it, don't embrace it; push it away and shun it like a poisoned cup. Find quality people, people with morals and standards, hold them close and make your own community. Much more good will come to you that way.

Yes, it's full of people who make sweeping statements about swaths of people with no qualifiers and breeds further contempt.

 

[pookie101]

the opinion from someone in their 40's is that the culture is pretty much mainstream these days with an extremely vocal, vicious and nasty old guard who is recruiting newer members to fight a rear guard/scorched earth against anything that threatens their view of what the should be even if they have to destroy peoples lives

 

[Vigormortis]

There's nothing wrong with Geek Culture.

What is happening has nothing to do with Geeks and Nerds Exclusively.

What everyone is picking up on is happening to Human Society as a whole.

We live on a planet where the predominate emotion is anger. I'm not being heard enough. I'm not being respected enough. I'm tired of hearing other people. I'm tired of always having to try to respect others. I didn't get enough from life and others. I'm tired and done of giving stuff to anyone. My beliefs are right. Your beliefs mark you as inferior to me.

Very few has patience for the different. No one wants to sacrifice any more, because they feel like they've done it their whole lives. Everyone has a chip on their shoulder, and those chips double exponentially when they go out into the world and find OTHERS have chips on their shoulders.

It's like "How DARE anyone else have the audacity to be upset? Only I and people who are likeminded to me or who are physically and socially similar to me has had any real problems. Who the hell could anyone ever suffered like we did?!"

Take that sentence and apply it to the asshole Trump Supporters, People who hate America, Americans who hate others, Atheists who hate Theists, Theists who hate Atheists, SJW, Men's Right Activist, Geeks, Feminists, Minorities, The Majority, Rich, Poor, The Glorious PC Master Race, Consolers, People who can't eat cereal soggy, People who put toilet paper in front, Those who put it in the back (giggity).

Once you strip down their 'reasons' and get to their feelings, you will find a variant of the sentence.

Ding ding! We have a winner.

As I'd posted in another thread, it's not a matter of 'geeks are assholes', it's a matter of 'people are assholes'.

We live in an age where anyone and everyone has a voice amongst the greater whole. And as we're all starting to discover, the vast majority of us are not nice, well-meaning, intelligent, nor rational. Moreover, we've started seeing patterns of behavior within ourselves that become obviously negative when seen through the eyes of others.

Being uncomfortable with that fact, many of us have begun looking for a scapegoat. A 'group' to target our self-loathing and disgust towards. One of those groups, for communities such as the Escapist, is the so called "geek culture".

I'm beginning to reject the idea that this has to do with any anonymity of the internet, but rather the fact that we're not all in the same room, having the same conversation at the same time.

I mean, this all had its origins in friends sitting around a table, on a couch, or at a LAN party, etc. While trash talk was still prominent, we could immediately read the temperature of the room, and see how our comments affected the others. And, if we went too far, there was reprisal with consequences, such as being admonished or even ejected from the group.

However, with the internet, we don't immediately see how our words affect others, so without that sense of empathy, leads to escalation that goes far beyond toxic. Furthermore, with the numerous amount of communities, being ejected from one is far less consequential than it had when the one playgroup in your town stopped talking to you.

TL,DR: The internet killed the superego. So, the id runs amuck.

I've felt the same for quite some time. It's not just the sense of freedom from consequence that anonymity brings. It's the all-too-often lack of context and proximal empathy that leads to the usual hostility and escalation that we see.

At least, that's what I've come to believe. I have no meaningful evidence to support that.

Well, if the thread is anything to go by, Geek Culture is quite self deprecating if not self absorbed.

Which goes hand-in-hand with my claim that 2016 is, indeed, the Year of Cynicism.

I like a lot of the stuff it produces.

I do not so much like a lot of the people it produces.

I love the idea of the underdog as much as the next person, but the reality isn't quite so sympathetic.

Turns out, if you gather up the outcasts, the misfits and the maladjusted and mash them all together the outcome actually isn't all that pretty. You get a whole lot of unhealthy, unhappy, immature, terminally bitter folks of questionable mental condition who never got over being bullied in high school and have chosen to define themselves by their preferences in entertainment media.

Many of them probably ended up the way they are through no fault of their own, but that doesn't make the end result any less unpleasant to be around.

This isn't to say "geek culture" is somehow worse than other cultures. I mean, people fucking die in riots over sport. It just means geek culture has its own brand of awfulness which I refuse to tolerate just because no corpses have shown up with "fake geek girl" etched into their foreheads... yet.

As I'd brought up in the other thread, why make the distinction then? What possible purpose does it serve other than to single out a single demographic as being wholly responsible? Are we not better served by only targeting those who are behaving poorly, rather than broadly accusing an entire, tangentially-associated group? As I'd said, yes there have been instances of sports fans going full mental and rioting over a lost game. But I would never use that as an example for the claim "sports culture is toxic and needs to die". So why do we use instances of bad behavior by some geeks as a rallying cry for the death of 'geek culture' as a whole? To me it feels just as demeaning and exclusionary as 'geeks' are portrayed as behaving.

I guess I just don't understand the hypocritical nature of todays culture/counter-culture mindset.

 

[Supernova1138]

A minefield of emotionally volatile, socially retarded, self-loathing, bullying waifs, pathetically lacking in empathy, who occasionally gravitate close enough to one another to become something like friends before something is said or done that causes unbridgeable enmity between them for the remainder of their lives. The longer you stare, the worse you become.

Let it die. Don't engage with it, don't embrace it; push it away and shun it like a poisoned cup. Find quality people, people with morals and standards, hold them close and make your own community. Much more good will come to you that way.

Spoiler: my face reading this

You moderate a website all about geek culture, and you want said culture's death. How do you do it?

It's all in the second paragraph, he does it so he can drive people away from here that he thinks lack 'quality'. He really ought to take his arrogant ass to NeoGAF if he can't stand being around all the wrongthinkers, they've managed to purge everyone who lacks 'morals and standards'.

 

[Bat Vader]

Nerd/Geek culture is like any other culture it has its fair share of assholes but it also has its fair share of generally nice and awesome people as well. Should it die? No. I love nerd/geek culture, some of the people in it though not so much.

 

[Bat Vader]

A minefield of emotionally volatile, socially retarded, self-loathing, bullying waifs, pathetically lacking in empathy, who occasionally gravitate close enough to one another to become something like friends before something is said or done that causes unbridgeable enmity between them for the remainder of their lives. The longer you stare, the worse you become.

Let it die. Don't engage with it, don't embrace it; push it away and shun it like a poisoned cup. Find quality people, people with morals and standards, hold them close and make your own community. Much more good will come to you that way.

I've made some great friends on here and other sites because we bonded over nerd/geek culture. Sure, some people act like that in nerd/geek culture but so do many others in different cultures as well. Every culture has some people that are emotionally volatile, socially retarded, self-loathing, bullying waifs, and pathetically lacking in empathy. Instead of a culture needing to die it's better to just ignore those types of people and not associate with them. We have ignore lists on here. If I see someone acting like that I just add them to my ignore list and call it good.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Not overly fond of what I see of it.

Games and products and whatnot are things I enjoy. The people involved in the 'culture', if it is one, I like somewhat less often. There are some I like and talk to and befriend. There seem to be many others I am fine not having around me too often.

On reflection labeling it as a single culture seems too broad to reflect all the different variations in groups that enjoy the same sorts of activities.

 

[SolidState]

A minefield of emotionally volatile, socially retarded, self-loathing, bullying waifs, pathetically lacking in empathy, who occasionally gravitate close enough to one another to become something like friends before something is said or done that causes unbridgeable enmity between them for the remainder of their lives. The longer you stare, the worse you become.

Let it die. Don't engage with it, don't embrace it; push it away and shun it like a poisoned cup. Find quality people, people with morals and standards, hold them close and make your own community. Much more good will come to you that way.

You moderate a website all about geek culture, and you want said culture's death. How do you do it?

How on earth he's even allowed to moderate this forum after making such sweeping insulting and inflammatory statements, just beggars belief.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

That'd be a strong argument if he had specifically mentioned the Escapst. He didn't. So...

 

[CyanCat47_v1legacy]

speaking in broad terms, aa community that will start the verbal equivalent of thermonuclear war over things that shouldn't matter but curl up like a porqupine made of vibranium whenever someone asks potentially important questions about the politics and/or ethics depicted in famous and/or popular works.

 

[StatusNil]

The "nerd/geek culture" of today... isn't.

See, what the words basically mean is a certain lack of social graces, combined with an intense preoccupation with a number of niche interests. Really we're talking about the higher functioning parts of the autism spectrum. And when it comes to popular culture, this frequently means people who have a real need for structure in their fantasies. That's their comfort zone in a world that frequently appears chaotic and arbitrary. Hence the importance of "canonicity" of story elements, and the inflexibility when it comes to messing with it. "Nerds/geeks" crave consistency instead of "fresh new takes" because they're not good at adapting on the fly. That's why they're those things in the first place. And that's why the relationship between the "core" (longtime, not "just a-phase") fans of things like superhero comics and their producers is inescapably fraught.

Meanwhile, the whole notion of "nerd/geek culture" is that of a socially self-aware playing with "geeky" elements. It's "I'm such a BIG NERD I had a cartoon character tattooed on my ass, LOL!" And such awareness is of course the hallmark of the ironic posture. It's a lower tier of cool for those who didn't make it to impeccably hip: hip-sterism. That's the domain of socialites like "Queen of Geeks, Felicia Day!" "But why is she the Queen? What has she made that was so great?" "Dude, she's like totally hip to what's cool in teh geek scene, so we all must love her! AND she hangs out with Wesley from Star Trek!" "But everybody always hated Wesley..." "Shut up, dudemeister is a GEEK ICON, he can totally laugh about himself!"

And that's the major internal contradiction in this alleged "nerd/geek culture". It's dominated by socially adept hipsters who have learned to ironically embrace "geeky" signifiers, building "fandoms" predicated on sociability. And these hipsters have zero empathy, in fact a burning contempt, for the authentically dysfunctional "nerds" who sincerely cling to their favorite pop culture products for comfort. "Like, how GAUCHE is taking this shit SERIOUSLY, man?" This is in fact much of what this very thread is saying. "Nerd/geek culture is cool, except for all the TOXIC nerds who give it a bad name!"

Well, that "toxicity" is largely a backlash of marginalized (yes) people with limited social skills to what amounts to a highly disrespectful takeover of all their favorite things by fickle trendies. Of course, even the OG "geeks" don't OWN these cultural forms. But if the substance of the new "nerd/geek" culture is to deliberately target the real nerds/geeks by appropriating what they helped build and "subverting its tropes" as a Grand Stand against their supposedly "exclusionary entitlement", it doesn't take a genius Social Scientist to understand why it might appear riven with hostilities great and small. The culturally sensitive thing is to Build Moar, Misappropriate Less. Or simply deign to treat this Lower Class of "dumpster fire" folks with some respect, even if they cramp your style with their uncouth enthusiasms.

 

[Parasondox]

.

That is the most diplomatic way I can say it. This thread makes me genuinly miserable and angry and despite my support of free speech and thought, I hope it gets locked. If people really want to discuss this, I recommend they go to NEOgaf, Kotaku or Polygon, they are far more tolerant of this sort of discussion.

I'd encourage people to support their claim or opinion with reason, but I don't think it's possible for this particular topic. It smells like an agenda more than anything else...

Locking the thread because you disagree with what others have said? Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I am also surprised at the response because I thought it was going to be a lighter affair but I was wrong. I wouldn't lock it though. People have the right to express their thoughts on the matter. It's why I created this thread.

 

[Elfgore]

Man, if someone was to waltz in here unknowing of this community they might think nerd/geek culture slaughtered some users whole family and burned their house down. Ironically it's the same people who tell people to chill about getting hate boners for things. Neat!

I don't give a shit about it. I honestly don't even know really what it is anymore. Are all of us part of it by posting here in online forums? I can't give an honest opinion on it really cause you know, no idea what it even is.

 

[Zenja]

To anyone who reads this; If you really, truly, believe that the core of our community deserves to disappear, then you are the reason for the toxicity. The very idea of it serves nothing else than to spread misery and negativity, so by supporting it, you are making things worse. You're not being a better person than anyone else, you are actively being worse.

It is sad that this needs to be said. Compounded with:

See, what the words basically mean is a certain lack of social graces, combined with an intense preoccupation with a number of niche interests. ...[snip]...

Meanwhile, the whole notion of "nerd/geek culture" is that of a socially self-aware playing with "geeky" elements. It's "I'm such a BIG NERD I had a cartoon character tattooed on my ass, LOL!" And such awareness is of course the hallmark of the ironic posture. ...[snip]...

And that's the major internal contradiction in this alleged "nerd/geek culture". It's dominated by socially adept hipsters who have learned to ironically embrace "geeky" signifiers, building "fandoms" predicated on sociability. And these hipsters have zero empathy, in fact a burning contempt, for the authentically dysfunctional "nerds" who sincerely cling to their favorite pop culture products for comfort. ...[snip]...

Well, that "toxicity" is largely a backlash of marginalized (yes) people with limited social skills to what amounts to a highly disrespectful takeover of all their favorite things by fickle trendies...[snip]

For all the people who are bashing the culture, how about trying to inject something positive into it and try turning the "toxicity" into understanding? There has clearly been a huge dose of new people into this culture over the last 10 years. If comics were truly as popular as people pretend Marvel would not have been fighting bankruptcy so bad that they would sell off the movie rights of their most lucrative properties just to keep afloat.

To step into nerd culture just to berate those who are in it seems really pretentious and no doubt means you are probably a major source of negativity and thereby toxicity in the community. Culture isn't static and is susceptible to change. If you think something is wrong, try making positive changes in that direction instead of negative attacks at the culture as a whole. Essentially "Be what you want to see", isnt that what super heroes teach anyways? Don't give into negativity. (the dark side ) As well, accpet that you are in a culture with many people that don't have the best social skills and see if you can help put a positive influence in that direction for everyone's benefit.

Saying that the culture should die isn't going to win anybody anything, including you. Being a part of something good is better than shouting at something as though it is beneath you.

 

[chadachada123]

The "nerd/geek culture" of today... isn't.

See, what the words basically mean is a certain lack of social graces, combined with an intense preoccupation with a number of niche interests. Really we're talking about the higher functioning parts of the autism spectrum. And when it comes to popular culture, this frequently means people who have a real need for structure in their fantasies. That's their comfort zone in a world that frequently appears chaotic and arbitrary. Hence the importance of "canonicity" of story elements, and the inflexibility when it comes to messing with it. "Nerds/geeks" crave consistency instead of "fresh new takes" because they're not good at adapting on the fly. That's why they're those things in the first place. And that's why the relationship between the "core" (longtime, not "just a-phase") fans of things like superhero comics and their producers is inescapably fraught.

Meanwhile, the whole notion of "nerd/geek culture" is that of a socially self-aware playing with "geeky" elements. It's "I'm such a BIG NERD I had a cartoon character tattooed on my ass, LOL!" And such awareness is of course the hallmark of the ironic posture. It's a lower tier of cool for those who didn't make it to impeccably hip: hip-sterism. That's the domain of socialites like "Queen of Geeks, Felicia Day!" "But why is she the Queen? What has she made that was so great?" "Dude, she's like totally hip to what's cool in teh geek scene, so we all must love her! AND she hangs out with Wesley from Star Trek!" "But everybody always hated Wesley..." "Shut up, dudemeister is a GEEK ICON, he can totally laugh about himself!"

And that's the major internal contradiction in this alleged "nerd/geek culture". It's dominated by socially adept hipsters who have learned to ironically embrace "geeky" signifiers, building "fandoms" predicated on sociability. And these hipsters have zero empathy, in fact a burning contempt, for the authentically dysfunctional "nerds" who sincerely cling to their favorite pop culture products for comfort. "Like, how GAUCHE is taking this shit SERIOUSLY, man?" This is in fact much of what this very thread is saying. "Nerd/geek culture is cool, except for all the TOXIC nerds who give it a bad name!"

Well, that "toxicity" is largely a backlash of marginalized (yes) people with limited social skills to what amounts to a highly disrespectful takeover of all their favorite things by fickle trendies. Of course, even the OG "geeks" don't OWN these cultural forms. But if the substance of the new "nerd/geek" culture is to deliberately target the real nerds/geeks by appropriating what they helped build and "subverting its tropes" as a Grand Stand against their supposedly "exclusionary entitlement", it doesn't take a genius Social Scientist to understand why it might appear riven with hostilities great and small. The culturally sensitive thing is to Build Moar, Misappropriate Less. Or simply deign to treat this Lower Class of "dumpster fire" folks with some respect, even if they cramp your style with their uncouth enthusiasms.

A summation so good that I'm going to quote in its entirety just for posterity.

I don't even know what I could possibly add to this, aside from including the damage that The Big Bang Theory and its clear contempt for intelligence has had on the rise of "lol such a nerd xD".

 

[Zontar]

Saying that the culture should die isn't going to win anybody anything, including you. Being a part of something good is better than shouting at something as though it is beneath you.

I think you may have misread StatusNil's comment, because your response seems to be one that would be for a comment taking the exact opposite stance of what he said.

I don't see how taking issue with the fact many faux-nerds are openly hostile towards nerds is a problem, and I don't see how being positive about a problem helps fix that problem when only one sides wants the problem solved, and it's not the side with the numerical advantage. Or at least the mobilization advantage, since we don't really know what the numbers are due to one group being highly sociable while the other is anything but.

As for the OP: my thoughts are that going mainstream has been the best and worst thing to ever happen to it.

It's the best thing that ever happened in that we're seeing more big budget productions on both the big and small screen catering to stories and genre that appeal to nerds and geeks.

It's the worst thing that ever happened because nerds and geeks are now having properties that are important to the culture (and it is a culture by any metric outside of those that constitute nationhood) and are being changed, often to the point of being unrecognisable, by people who either don't like the properties, don't care for them, or don't understand them. Abram's Trek and Wars as well as the DCEU are the norm, not the MCU.

Personally I'm unsure if this can even be resolved at this point. One group that doesn't like the sudden changes that are happening (often to the detriment of the works in question) and another that wants to kick the first group out of the house they built, it's not a particularly easy thing to resolve as neither would really have an interest in dealing with the other.