Cool Dorks? Oh Really?
Maybe it’s the heat, but someone over at CNN has got the idea the it’s cool to be uncool now. The article claims that dork pride is on the rise. Well without getting into the differences between geeks, nerds, and dorks, I would only agree that it is more acceptable these days to be a member of such groups. And indeed there has been a rise in the sales of geek wear, I guess. But being a skeptic and having suffered for my own geekiness, I would hardly believe that being a geek, nerd, or dork has become mainstream. But like being excited to see black people on tv growing up (a rarity then), and now Asians, at least they are talking about us! And nowhere in the article is the suggestion that they need medication!
July 26th, 2005 at 1:48 pm
Ha. It looks like they found this article from 1997, dusted it off a bit, and shoved it back on us unsuspecting dupes.
If it’s so cool to be a dork or nerd, why are all the visible female gamers the most attractive ones?
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
[…] My short answer to the question of whether geeks are cool yet, is no! Indeed, one could argue that by definition, being a geek necessarily means not being cool. Nevertheless, Cnet has launched a geek culture blog that is taking a different view. Maybe times have changed since I first ranted about this, still I would argue that while bits a geek culture may leak into the mainstream, the geeks themselves remain a despised class, the target of bullies in school, and offshoring layoffs in the work place. The work geeks do is important, and much of our modern society would cease to function without it, but the geeks themselves are not respected and seen as expendable. In the US, at least, until there is real respect for scientists, engineers, and intellectuals, being a geek can never be cool. What is respect? Respect is, in part, being able to be paid what you’re worth without having your job go overseas to someone who makes less than half the pay, and then hearing tech CEOs bemoan the lack of qualified US citizens to do the job! […]