Before reading on or looking into the below link, think to yourself. If you're here, you probably understand, abstractly, what a 'Geek' is. You might be one. Know a few. Been raised by some. But, can you really narrow it down and put it into words, or not?
Below is the Wikipedia entry for Geek. I think it's surprisingly short.
'Geek' on Wikipedia.
The general idea is that 'Geek' is changing. It's no-longer exactly derogatory. It represents 'An enthusiast'.
I happen to like where the specific quote by Julie smith was heading:
"a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his computer took him to as cyberspace—somewhere exciting, a place more real than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager's room in his parents' house."
The definition has the things I like about the title; An implication of escapism, of a secluded covenant with things like books or the internet. And, frankly, a little bit of geek elitism.
But, as the article, and probably you, notice, there's not exactly an easy definition that works for everyone. And some of them vary a bit.
So, with so many ideas floating around, what can we agree on? Let's just break down the "Other Definitions" from Wikipedia.
* A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person's smooth operation within society.
* A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. Geeks are adept with computers, and use the term hacker in a positive way, though not all are hackers themselves.
* A person who relates academic subjects to the real world outside of academic studies; for example, using multivariate calculus to determine how they should correctly optimize the dimensions of a pan to bake a cake.
* A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who passionately pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.
* A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as "geeky" is heavily debated. Persons have been labeled as or chosen to identify as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, music geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical reenactment geeks and roleplay geeks.
* A more recent school of thought sees Nerd as being a derogatory phrase, whilst Geek is simply a description. It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum, of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.
Of the above, only one of the six is explicitly derogatory. And, in truth, only two of these definitions discuss computers and technology. Yet, there's common ideas.
Obsessed. Interested. Relates academic subjects to the real world. Concentration. Devotion to something. An enthusiast.
There's social implications, too. Two talk directly about operation with society (The lack, or the lack of a lack) and two of 'mainstream social acceptance'.
So, dedicated self-selected specialists within fields outside the mainstream seem to be a common thread to most of these definitions. And it's not a bad place to start. Nor is that next to last definition, which discusses Geek as having subspecies.
That idea is really the purpose of this blog, although obviously with some bleed through from a Roleplay Geek. There's different tracks, focuses, specializations and interests among the Geek genus, Wikipedia naming most of the main ones we think of - Comic books geeks, Cinephiles, etc. But somehow, even geeks from different species seem to get along. There's some kind of commonality that lets a Band Geek get along with a Roleplay geek or vice versa. More important to this exploration, there's also very, very few examples of 'Pure' geeks with but a single focus. People who get the geek label tend to spread at least a little beyond their home turf, often as a side benefit of that easy interaction between groups.
So based on the ones I know, most geeks are, at their heart, not only in their own field. They branch out, and are, by their nature... Cross Class Geeks. I hope to chronicle all those classes, and try to figure out what Geek means in our society, and maybe discover the magic secret that makes interdisciplinary geek-dom so freaking easy.
Until then, I plan for it to be a bunch of cool stuff and musings on my different foci.
So, as best I can think of from 'Most' to 'Least', here's the geek species in me:
Science Fiction Geek (By... Birth?)
Roleplay Geek (By Practice)
Comic Geek (By Osmosis)
Internet Geek (By Exposure)
Computer Game Geek (By Daily Ritual)
Computer Geek (By Blood)
Programming Geek (In training even.)
Mythology Geek (By Preference)
Firearms Geek
Movie Geek
Art Geek
What about you?
Bottoms Up!
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