It's the start of a new year. This has some rather profound and soul shaping consequences.... none of which I am aware of, so I'm going to rattle on about meaningless fluff instead!
The face of the geek. Have you noticed that the stereo-type geek is in decline? The stereo-type is, of course, the thin, bespectacled dork who has no social skills and looks like he will break in half if you so much as think at him (or, very rarely, her). These people, we are told, went on to make millions while their butch class mates went on to be bin liner cleaners. This, we all know, is complete crap. A lot of the dorks went on to be bin liner cleaners, while the jocks bought cars, stopped exersising and became
fat executives.
Anyway, to get back on to the point, the geek image has been used for a few decades now to describe the typical computer expert, and is used in derogatory fashion by non-experts. But, on closer examination, this description, at least the physical part, would seem to be far from the mark. As a wonderful example, take a look at our illustrious web site master and his most pleasant controller (sorry, wife). Neither of these looks like a "geek", far from it. In fact, I think every "geek" I know, doesn't look like one. The geeks are now the healthy looking dudes, who do some form of active sport and generally look pretty "normal" (yes, I know, there are exceptions). So what has happened? Where did the geeks go?
My theory, is that the current crop of computer-dudes, and by this I mean employed ones, not bedroom script-kiddies, grew up with the geek thing, and rebelled. So we moved as far from the physical norm as we could get. Interestingly, a hell of a lot of the mental traits that were attributed to geeks are still there, because a lot of them are needed to want to be a computer-dude in the first place. I mean who else buy a social-leper would want to spend all their time in front of a bloody computer, anyway?
Which leads to what, I wonder? Will the trend continue? Will the next batch of computer-dudes be of Mr. Universe proportions and be wearing the latest fashion accessories (no, I do not mean a glow-in-the-dark iPod with sequins), or will the pendulum swing back? Maybe we'll see a resurgence of the pale skinnies with thick glasses, tapped up on one side.
You know, the oddest thing is, the phrase geek still gets a lot of air-play where I work now. And it is used as a form of abuse to describe someone who gets excited about some programming language feature, or about the specs on a new graphics card. The funny bit, is that the loudest yellers of the phrase are yelling it while reading form their blue-tooth enabled Palm pilot which is linked to their polyphonic phone which is currently playing a really bad rendition of Kylie Minogue singing "Ring Ring". Something about pots, kettles and the colour black, me thinks.....
... [End time waster]
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