Increasingly I think we are over-connected. I'm not sure human beings are meant to be voicing their opinions with hundreds or thousands of people constantly. But it is addictive enough to be a blatant hypocrite.
Is Nerd Culture Dying?
81–90 of 117 posts
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#82I believe there is no counter culture in the west anymore. It is mainstream to be subversive, and so there is little to no subversiveness left
There's plenty of counter culture, it's just not being promoted by radio and TV anymore. Tell people proudly that you have stopped paying taxes and that they should too, and see how they react. Tell people you didn't take the vaccine or that you home school your children.
That's not counter culture, that's idiocy. That's like setting up your balls on fire. It will hurt.
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#83When I think of nerd culture, I think of people "geeking out" over Star Trek, videogames, tabletop games, etc. Basically, I think of comic book guy from the Simpsons. During my lifetime, a lot of it was saturated with pretension, self-aware or otherwise; it was always kind of a minstrel show. I would agree that many elements of it have gone mainstream.
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#84He almost hits on what's changed in my brain, but then kind of wanders into this weird criticism of...things people enjoy. I think the shift is that we don't have a monoculture anymore (thanks to the Internet and especially social media) so what seems like we're losing nerd culture and these niche interests in "bad" things really just means that everyone can find them now and likewise folks who are into these niche i…
Is it true that we don't have a monoculture, though? The author argues that algorithms have reintroduced monoculture: there was a period before the year 2000 when we had a monoculture (because of the scarcity of information) and a period after 2012 when we had a monoculture (because of effective information-sorting algorithms). The kind of cultural fragmentation you're talking about only existed 2000-2012, or in what…
I definitely could be wrong! I think there will always be cultural centers because people like gathering together (virtually or otherwise). Things like memes and TikTok trends create shared culture, but I don’t think we have a monoculture. The algorithms on these platforms create cultural centers but there are lots of them rather than a meta stream that everyone feeds off of. The vast difference between what I see on my TikTok feed and what my wife and her friends see on theirs is wild. They algorithms are like hipsters that into account things you like haha!
Take a tour around the popular subreddits to see if we have a fragmented culture. I’m often blown away how popular some niche subreddit that I’ve literally never heard of will be even though I’ve been on Reddit for 15+ years! The panoply of ideas and interests on there is super cool to see.
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#85I believe there is no counter culture in the west anymore. It is mainstream to be subversive, and so there is little to no subversiveness left
counter culture these days is returning to conservative traditions and monotheistic and other long lasting religions
Don Quixote did that first at the Enlightenment era, but as a joke from the author, were people was less idealistic/religious like Sancho Panza.
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#86Frat star whining about nerds liking things, and its front page of hacker news. Did the upvoters have a little too much unsweetened 30 proof cranberry juice?
I don't think most frat boys are in the habit of quoting Adorno. And with this particular author, it's not always advisable to take everything at face value...
I don't know anything about this particular author, and it's a good guess that most HN readers don't either.
I gather from your comment that the article is performative bullshit, and it is up to the reader to decide which parts are fiction, which parts are lies presented as facts, which parts are opinions that the author doesn't actually hold, and which parts they actually believe?
That kind of thing can work if the author is writing to some insular audience who understands that it is bullshit. But it will not make for a good discussion when posted to a general audience. How can you have a discussion about anything except the unbearable style, if the text is not to be taken at face value?
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> has just gone mainstream Care to provide some examples? Most "nerd" interests like SciFi have been neutered if not completely bent out of shape while going mainstream.
George RR Martin made a good point- that if a nerd is someone with a lot of knowledge about something others find uninteresting, we've all become nerds with the advent of the internet. It's just too easy to go down a rabbit hole not to be a nerd in regards to something.
But going down a rabbit hole in the era of internet does not necessarily mean gaining a lot of knowledge. Usually it means binge learning other people's information and conclusions, while not making any relevant experience and conclusion on your own, thus not making much knowledge yourself. And then moving to the next rabbit hole, to forget most things you have learned just now.
For me, a nerd is also someone who sticks to the hole and builds their own labyrinth to some degree.
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#88Clearly barely anyone here has read far enough into this article to even know what he means by "Nerd Culture". I don't really agree with it, but he makes a specific claim and does so eloquently and emotively. It would be more interesting to discuss that claim than to respond to the title, as most here are doing. Briefly, he's saying that the explosion in information availability has resulted in a form of hyper-aesthe…
Hahaha, I read the article first for some reason (I usually don't), but was then expecting exactly that: everybody discussing the title, not the article itself.
I should probably always read the article first, if I don't find the title interesting enough to do that, then reading the comments is probably just a waste of time as well.
Yes, his definition of nerd is unusual, but I like it ;-)
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#89Clearly barely anyone here has read far enough into this article to even know what he means by "Nerd Culture". I don't really agree with it, but he makes a specific claim and does so eloquently and emotively. It would be more interesting to discuss that claim than to respond to the title, as most here are doing. Briefly, he's saying that the explosion in information availability has resulted in a form of hyper-aesthe…
Author's quite the judgmental bastard with a strange definition of nerd, but yeah most people ITT are just riffing on the title. It's a bit too prosaic to expect most people to read it in full though, but you get the gist after the first minute or so.
That said I get the reason for the title, "Hipster watches as the consoooomers meets the same fate his people did many moons ago" is far less catchy.
Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?
#90I think that nerd culture has just gone mainstream. It's far from dying.
I think 'geek chic' (i.e poseurs) went mainstream a while ago, but actual nerds will never be popular by definition. I've tried in vain to find people at parties who care about my favourite arcane programming languages and obscure political doctrine, it's impossible :(
If every other person cared about it wouldnt be arcane or obscure, would it?
Given you talk about ‘poseurs’ you sound more like a hipster than a geek.