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Is Nerd Culture Dying?

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Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#101

Post by anthk »

Dalewyn wrote: post #40
goodpoint wrote: post #8

Earlier 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.

Personal computing has gone mainstream. Video games have gone mainstream. Internet has gone mainstream. Anime has gone mainstream. "AI" has gone mainstream. I think it's fair to say that nerd culture does, has, and always will exist, but what nerd culture is changes with the passing sands of time. The nerds of today are not the nerds of yesteryear (read: us).

Anime in Europe was already mainstream in the 80's and 90's with Dragon Ball (late 80's/early-mid 90's), Captain Tsubasa, Candy Candy, Mazinger Z, Heidi. On video games, well, everyone played Tetris at least once.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#102

Post by LudwigNagasena »

shortrounddev wrote: post #99
LudwigNagasena wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many ways to be subversive. But it’s becoming more and more socially costly to be subversive.

Can you give an example?

Well, planting a bomb or misgendering someone surely will get you in trouble in many places.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#103

Post by ergonaught »

barry-cotter wrote: post #47
ergonaught wrote: post #6

One could hope that what is dying is the idea that there is such a thing as "nerd culture".

Can you be more transparent about who you’re insulting and how you hope to thus raise your own status? It’s difficult to figure out anything from what you’ve written except that you hold someone in contempt.

Are you well?

I am criticizing the idea that "nerd culture" is a thing which exists. The presumption that an overgeneralized stereotype conveys some form of meaning. That there there is some monoculture common to "nerds" that can be said to be "dying".

All of this is clear from my written words.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#104

Post by goodpoint »

madeofpalk wrote: post #14
goodpoint wrote: post #8

Earlier 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.

The term "MCU" being in the common cultral lexicon.

Never heard of.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#105

Post by goodpoint »

Dalewyn wrote: post #40
goodpoint wrote: post #8

Earlier 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.

Personal computing has gone mainstream. Video games have gone mainstream. Internet has gone mainstream. Anime has gone mainstream. "AI" has gone mainstream. I think it's fair to say that nerd culture does, has, and always will exist, but what nerd culture is changes with the passing sands of time. The nerds of today are not the nerds of yesteryear (read: us).

...and none of this preserved any sort of unique culture, only proving my point.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#106

Post by antisthenes »

omnicognate wrote: post #80

Clearly 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…

> I think it's a huge oversimplification and I don't think "nerd" is a good term to use for what he's describing, but it's entertaining and would be fun to discuss if HN were capable of that.

So you yourself acknowledge it's a bad article and the author plays fast and loose with common terms, yet somehow HN is to blame?

> would be fun to discuss if HN were capable of that.

It sure would be, but could we pick a more sophisticated baseline than a multi-page rant about Marvel movies (who are almost universally understood to be pretty bad by adults, and are targeted at a less discerning demographic, e.g. 15-19 male)

> he makes a specific claim and does so eloquently and emotively.

Brevity is the sister of talent. If one has a point to make, it should be made prior to the halfway point of their diatribe. That's the least they could do just out of basic respect to their audience, unless they're just Twitter-shouting into the void.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#107

Post by drewcoo »

omnicognate wrote: post #80

Clearly 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…

Fortunately it doesn't take much reading to figure out that this joker redefines words however he likes.

Therefore, he is an elbow macaroni, and I refuse to read the work of elbow macaroni.

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#108

Post by drewcoo »

globular-toast wrote: post #100
jl6 wrote: post #32

Geek culture is things like comic books, video games and Star Wars. Nerd culture is things like recreational mathematics, model trains, and editing Wikipedia.

Oddly I thought it was the exact opposite. Geeks are really into things that are considered uncool but are really useful, like computers and maths. Nerds are really into things that are uncool but not useful, like comics and video games. It's the latter that went mainstream because it's easy. Anyone can do it. But being a geek requires one to be a bit "special".

It used to have a lot more to do with time spent at the library. Nerds are bookish.

Now libraries have conference rooms (where you might play D&D) and computers and movies to check out. Invasion of the geeks!

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#109

Post by drewcoo »

jollyllama wrote: post #83

When 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.

Pretentious . . . like a minstrel show? Do tell, Mr. Interlocutor!

Re: Is Nerd Culture Dying?

#110

Post by lamontcg »

Well, I definitely lost interest in all the superhero movies ages ago.

I'm just sitting here curating a list of hundreds of 80s songs, wondering why I can't get all the videos to play on my TV like my own custom MTV playlist.

Something definitely seems wrong with popular culture these days, but I'm not going to be able to help you sort it out...

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