Talk:Geek

Telling a geek apart from a nerd.

Check this page out. Nreds and geeks are different.TimHowardII 08:05, 19 January 2007 (UTC)TimHowardII

What's a geek?

From my own experiance, I would say the term geek is now commonly used for people who are much like nerds. The difference between those two is that nerds are interested in "practical" things, that are usefull to them and geeks are more for "trivial" thinks, they spend time with because it's entertaining to them.

I think that in the modern mindset, nerd is a perjorative term, where geek is more neutral. Nerd should be used to refer to one whose intellectual development in one specific area has atrophied his social skills. Revenge of the Nerds typifies this: the nerds were not able to function well in a social environment. A geek, on the other hand, may be extremely interested in one topic, but is still capable of having a life outside that topic. A comic book geek would have a large collection and be able to cite many facts and details about any comic book in his sphere of interest. He probably goes to cons in costume. However, he can be seen in public in the company of members of the opposite sex on a Friday evening. A comic book nerd, on the other hand, spends his weekends alone with his collection of Spider-Man memorabilia. Aside from his Mary Jane action figures and his mom, he doesn't spend any time with the ladies. This is probably due to poor hygeine, poor health, or just plain being unattractive. Having said that, a true comic book nerd would be offended by that comment, since after the movie came out, Spider-Man is "way too commerical", and he only follows the less well-known books. He very likely lives in his mother's basement. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TomXP411 (talk • contribs) 07:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

This shows the reason Wikipedia avoids original research, since in my experience I've mostly heard the term "geek" as being more pejorative than "nerd," where "geek" places emphasis on a lack of social skills, and "nerd" emphasizes a high amount of intelligence in a specialized area. Also, the stereotype of living in one's mother's basement is ridiculous, since one could conceivably live in one's father's basement, or even grandparents' basement; or, for that matter, in a cardboard box, and still be considered a geek or nerd. V-Man737 08:46, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

This unhairy ape thinks that most folk who fit badly either term, are either too ignorant to know the difference, too busy to care, or both. Ailahusky 12:43, 24 April 2007 (UTC)ailahusky

SEEING THE CONCEPT-GEEK- IN ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Several writers mention a connection of Asberger's with being a Geek trait but never address the issue of where or when the Asbergers wave began. Prior to addition of Thiomerosol (mercury compound) whuch causes neurological anomalies in susceptible populations, definitely proven by overwhelming majority of diagnosed cases being masculine, start around WW1 when mass scale immunization became cost effective and mandatory, before these mass immunizations incidence of Asbergers variant of Autism was unknown until Asberger detected this himself. On the college scene the fraternity houses on campus were portals into many venues on campus, most notably the social aspect. There are the obvious Mensa-like frat-sorority like Phi Beta Kappa to accomodate the intellectually endowed. These fraternity-sorority clusters after WW2 got the nickname the GREEKS due to their utilization of greek letters. Remember the song 'The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks* that came out after film 'Animal House' which was a low-brow level fraternity, but accepted its token 'GEEK* into the fraternity for the sole purpose of writing term papers for the frat brothers. These ultra-bright persons with low esteem were not usually invited into joining the rest of the frats during 'rush week' because of their lack of social spontaneity..how do I know this you may ask..I was there in the middle of it in the 50's when it all began. The common expression heard on campi( plural form of campus) from coast to coast was these ultra bright folk were not frat greeks, but frat geeks..a way of separating your average college student from a Stephen Hawkings-type genius who were only appreciated by those frats who manipulated them, for their prodigidous talent of memorizing all the questions on the GRE (graduate record exam) which enabled mediocre frat students to get into a master's program, or various final exams in all disciplines. Every frat house had a file cabinet full of these exams for frat brothers to cram with. Since there were 1,000s of these ultra bright students, think Bill Gates, who never themselves graduate college went on to other careers, due to non-intellectual stimuli found on the vast majority of campi, perhaps MIT and CAL TECH were exceptions to this phenomena, terms like nerd and geek were bandied about amongst these ultra bright students without any negative connotation, since these ultra bright were sought out by a myriad of think tanks that created todays' high-tech society. The world as we know it today could never evolve without these genii( plural of genius), perhaps having Asbergers can be seen as blessing in disguise for the planet as whole, but not for those like my own children who are plagued by it and daddy Bush when President made it known no legal challenge involving Connaugh Industries, makers of vaccines, will ever enter a court of law. I love my nerdy, geeky kids and admire their ability to cope with the social pressures to conform and fit in and yet their ability to come up with a new wrinkle on how to solve problems due to their unique insight into how things function so-called normal folk never copmprehend is in itself my take on the phenomenon of nerd and geek. I only see the positive side to being a geek, nerd, wunder-kind, etc they have enriched the world a trillion fold over their Bubba mentality co-inhabitants on the planet. To me a Bubba/Redneck is everybody who is not a nerd or geek, and these folks don't hide their lifestyle one bit. The above is my appraisal of the rise of the nerd and geek to their proper place in society. If someone can expand on the positive side in a manner I haven't covered, by all means be my guest. Jaako 14:45, 1 February 2007 (UTC)Jaako

Protected

Why is this page protected?

Minor Tweak 02:22, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

It was the subject of an intense bout of vandalism a few days ago. I'd bet the perps are disinterested by now and we can unprotect it... V-Man737 02:51, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Something to ponder

One automatically assumes that geeks are unstylish and perhaps uninterested in their appearance. So, can you have a geek for whom fashion in his obsession? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.111.238.2 (talk) 08:58, 4 March 2007 (UTC).

• No. Because if something like fashion is his obsession, he would not be a geek anymore. He would be conforming to the mainstream.Mr. ATOZ 17:30, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I somehow doubt that. Perhaps you wouldn't call the fashion geek a "Geek", but style alone doesn't serve everything you need to be accepted by mainstream: There are stylish people with "lack of social skills", if you want to call it that way, still making them somewhat geeky - although that might be (more common) with female persons. I also don't think geeks essentially need to be unstylish/uninterested in their appearance. I don't know about majority, style might often show if you are mainstream, but not always. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.141.154.154 (talk) 17:09, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

Being unstylish alone may not make one a geek. A lot of frumpy women and men have the potential to be handsome or beautiful with a makeover. They can be taken under someones wing to learn some social skills. Geeks on the other hand, would generally not be given a benefit of the doubt. Especially with some of the stereotypical ones. They often don't seem like they would be any more attractive if they were to be given a makeover; if only because they would feel like they were wearing another skin that doesn't quite fit them. What I really mean is the aforementioned frumpy men and women with potential may simply be somewhat uneducated of how to be stylish due to upbringing; maybe they were raised in a small town or conservative family where they didn't have a lot of access to the info on fashion that's available in large cities. A lot of geeks on the other hand simply choose to ignore the information out there on how to be fashionable. They are ignorant due to their lack of interest and in some cases, deliberate eschewing of mainstream fashion. Now we are talking about geeks who (as opposed to your small town farmboy/farmgirl) have access to information moreso than your average citizen.Mr. ATOZ 15:31, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Geek canon merge

I have no particular interest in geek culture as a topic, but ended up semi-guarding Geek canon against becoming TOO much of a cesspit some time ago. Unfortunately, it never really evolved much beyond an unreferenced "everyone list your favorite fandoms!!!!1!" After multiple people pointed out on the talk page that the article was completely awful, I decided to redirect it here. Anyway, there is some semi-valuable material there in the history if someone ever wants to have a stab at making that spinoff article with references, or perhaps integrating some of it here. I'd suggest moving it to "geek culture" instead, though, which would be a bit more general and less likely to attract "let me add my favorite" edits. SnowFire 02:11, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for letting us know. 8-B V-Man737 02:44, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Effectively deleting the page seems a bit rash. After perusing guidelines on deletion (yes, I realize this is not the case exactly here), redirection, merging etc. (being a newbie and careful not to blab without knowing the etiquette :-) I can't see it justified. Yes, the page had much to improve, but most of it was quite valid and informative... Again, being a newbie, I dare not do anything about this, but I would like to see the article a) simply brought back, maybe renamed as suggested, b) tagged for proposed deletion or c) merged to geek and then redirected. Anything but making the thing vanish without warning. Educate me if I'm missing something crucial here. Srjskam 02:17, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I think the current photo should be replaced

I just think that a picture of a male geek would be more appropriate as the term is more associated with males than females.Mr. ATOZ 21:18, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Geek - Cornish Dialect word

A geek is a nosy person, who is interested in other people's business, current in 1950s Cornwall, U.K.. === Vernon White (talk) 14:13, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Got a reference for that? Would love to see it! Ocicat 23:30, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

No, sorry. Only oral report. One of the speakers was a Bard, however! I see OED hasn't this sense of the word. === Vernon White (talk) 07:04, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

SOURCE: Oall rite, me ansum! a salute to Cornish Dialect by Les Merton (2003). Newbury, Berkshire; Countryside Books ISBN 1-85306-814-4. Page 19: Geek: to look.Gyky is Kernewek for "to peep". === Vernon White (talk) 08:55, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

"Geek"..

Is "geek" not a pejorative slur? --Remi 07:12, 16 May 2007 (UTC)