And today, being geeky means what? We have left the word to the sociologist to try to define this term which has evolved enormously in recent years and has its roots in traditions and mythologies unknown.
A first shift began in the 1960s and 1970s, when geeks began to designate students on California campuses who were into hobbies that would be decidedly different from those of ordinary people. In the 1990s, only engineers and mathematicians began to use the word to mark their identity. But we must wait until the 2000s to see emerge a real shift, which will just push these geeks and maths fond of computer 90s in their retrenchment.
Nowadays, geek culture is trending and even geek gifts are available everywhere. Have you thought about getting a dbz hoodie for Christmas?
Media and technology, the geek seed
Geek culture is considered a cryptic object: all around us, its secrets seem reserved for an elite of scholars, like the semiotics of Gothic cathedrals. For some, the geek would be a computer lover, a big spotty glasses who speaks another language and is cloistered at home to play video games, turned only to his passions asocial, and unable to communicate or even live in society.
For others, he is the trendy guy oriented new technologies, the worthy heir of Steve Jobs who launched its start-up and takes the body transition digital to launch its app on a smartphone. “Geeker,” it would be strumming foolishly and stupidly like a brainless on his computer keyboard or his laptop all day. But what makes the geek is its culture: we are not born geeks, we become geeks.
The kickstarter: tech
For starters, geeks often have very strong affinities with computers, it’s true. IT was born at the same time as it, in the 70s. Like the proto-computers of the 50s, there were also proto-geeks passionate about movies, monsters, comics, sci-fi and horror: but it will be necessary to wait for the broadcast of Star Trek, the release in theaters of Star Wars, and the translation of Lord of the Rings, for an entire generation to accede to this culture.
While there is no strict correlation between technology and geek, or if the geek does not systematically speak an incomprehensible language (although sometimes speaks Klingon or High Elvish), it undoubtedly uses technical jargon, like any enthusiast. A geek knows how to distinguish the sequel reboot and can cite all the replicas of his favorite films.
Geek typology
It will therefore be a question of starting from a typology of geek culture to explain its particularity and to demonstrate its richness and coherence, through a distribution of the geek in eight families: the fan of science fiction, the fan of fantasy, role-playing, screen fan, underground, otaku, old-school gamer, fan comics.
Bringing geek culture into boxes is, therefore, a puzzle, since the fact of not being able to be approached as a homogeneous whole is precisely one of its defining elements. The sociologist nevertheless identifies two worlds of practice.
On the one hand, there is tech, computer, and digital. On the other, the fantasy world and creating worlds.
For simplicity, the geek would be an expert with advanced knowledge in a field or a creator of worlds. However, this is where the analysis of video games, online games is take really fun. particularly enlightening: indeed, they have the distinction of bringing together these two worlds, digital expertise, and creativity.
