A Change in Culture
http://hartfordinformer.com/2011/09/entertainment/below-the-fold-geeks-get-some-nerds-not-so-much/
The article linked above is on how is it better to be a “geek” than a “nerd”. The article gives great examples on why geek culture is on the rise, while nerds are still not respected (per say). It makes a point that geeks are fashionable, yet still manage to be themselves with knowledge on tech, “Lord of the Rings”, and other “intelligent” things. I find this article interesting enough to share in the context of this course because it is showing how are increasingly technical world is making it acceptable for the geek subculture to rise into the mainstream. After watching films like Revenge of the Nerds or Weird Science, its obvious that the culture back then viewed people with tech knowledge as being social outcasts, with few friends and no popularity. But now that “mainstream” are tied to one another in technology based way, it’s not considered weird to know how to work with tech.
As this article points out, with out increasingly tech-based society, being tech-savvy is that bad anymore. Being a nerd/ dork is still viewed as lame, but as the article shows, intelligence can still equate with popularity in modern society. Since everybody now has some kind of tech in their lives, with the rise of smart-phones, Facebook, Twitter, and sites like Tumblr, society is now accepting people who know their way around a computer. A average person’s life social life is now dictated by the ties he has to his colleagues over social networks. I remember a few years ago, when I used to get on the web, and go to the main Yahoo! homepage, their would be a large add for site that allows people to connect with their old high school friends. Since everybody and their mother (literally) now has a Facebook page, I have noticed adds like these are far less prevalent. Technology is now directly linked to being social and connected to all our friends, and far cry from the days were “surfing the web” or writing a blog were considered dorky. Due to our ever-growing networking and technical society, being tech-savvy is cool. On the other hand, if you’re an actual awkward dork though, well… your life really isn’t going to be all that popular.