It takes more to be a geek today
Welcome to the mainstream, Geeks.
(Credit: Nintendo)Over the past few years, I've been amazed at the attention the tech industry has received in the single realm that some thought it wasn't fit for--the mainstream.
The video game industry has become a multibillion dollar industry that rivals film. The Nintendo Wii is being played by people aged 1 to 100. The iPhone has transformed the cell phone industry. The Amazon Kindle, a device that some believed was a niche product, is selling faster than even Amazon expected. And everywhere you turn, someone who you thought had little knowledge about computers is discussing the differences between a Mac and PC.
But it's not just hardware. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are attracting millions of people to their pages each month. And celebrities--the leaders of the mainstream--have recently made Twitter, once a destination for the geek, almost a household name.
Most of those products were once reserved for the "Geek." But now, the mainstream has entered the Geekdom, and conquered it. It's getting harder to find a real geek.
So, I guess it's time we re-evaluate our Geekdom. What does it take to be a geek today?
If you're programming in Ruby, you're a geek. If you get excited to jailbreak your iPhone, you're a geek. If you want to build your PC from scratch, you're a geek. If you spend time hacking into a network, you're a geek. If you're trying to run Linux on your digital camera, you're a geek.
But if you have a real interest in technology, you're not necessarily a geek anymore. Sales figures and pop culture have shown that cool tech has a place in the mainstream. Technology's appeal to that mainstream is relentless. More and more people will find a love for gadgetry and the Web. And in the process, the number of geeks will dwindle.
I remember a time when it was easy to be a geek. All you had to do was have an interest in technology and know a lot about it. Today, being a geek takes real work. But for many of us, being a part of the mainstream justifies what we've been saying for years: tech really is cool.
We told you so.
Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter stream, and FriendFeed.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
I think that if geeks wan't to maintain their geek status, they must come up with the next geek refuge. For years, gaming was a big geek refuge but it is far too popular now to be considered as such anymore. Twitter was the same way for the first couple of years. It was the home of geeks and not really anybody else. I'm not sure what should replace them but something needs to be the home of geeks again. Ever since twitter has been plugged on practically every tv and news show, it has lost its charm for me. When my mom started to ask about it, I knew it was time for the geeks to move on. I am waiting for the next awesome thing for geeks to come along but until then, I have largely been using FriendFeed as it still has that geek haven feel to it. I think its time for somebody to come up with the next big thing for Geeks and hopefully its soon as the line is blurring every day.
It's nice in some ways because it shows that the industry will have even more to go off of because of the newfound interest in technology for most people, but sometimes it's not as fun anymore!
- by chadw1ck April 27, 2009 9:12 AM PDT
- I would like to argue that geeks will always be geeks. Why, you ask? Tech going mainstream is a natural evolution that happens in all areas. Think about when cars were first invented. The people that owned the first cars and knew how they operated and how to fix them could be considered the geeks of their time. They were enthusiasts and tinkerers, and that is what a geek is. The automobile eventually became commonplace and the knowledge of their operation was demystified.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(8 Comments)The same could be said for television, modern medicine or the telephone. I believe the slow adoption of computers and the development of the geek culture of today is a result of a lot of people not understanding or finding ways that a computer or other gadgetry can immediately improve their lives. Think of my previous examples; the job a car does your for is obvious, so is the telephone. Now think about computers. How many times have people said over the years,"Well, what do I need a computer for?" A perfect real-life example is that my mom once asked me,"Why do you need speakers for a computer?" (I think that was around the year 2000)
People are finally realizing all the wonderfully awesome things digital technology can do for them, but that doesn't mean that us geeks are a dying breed. We will always be tinkerers and we will always find something new to play with.
Thanks for reading, have a rad day!