There’s never been a better time to be a geek.
Seriously, it would seem that finally it is the turn of the geeks to suddenly be the cool ones – a fact that I can only imagine has caused many US high schools to actually implode. Apple have managed to make computers and being good with computers cool, we’re all all about the gadgets, big chunky glasses that would previously be proclaimed as being dorky are now in fashion (I think… well ok I have no idea about fashion but I’ve seen lots of people who seem to have “cool” dress sense wearing them) and thanks to programmes like The Big Bang Theory it seems to no longer be a beating-worthy offence to have a modicum of intelligence about you and do well at school.
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People are now celebrating rather than hiding their geekiness. Weddings are celebrating the couple’s unique quirks and personalities, lego figures are appearing on cakes, cool sports cars are being replaced by VW Campervans, grooms are delivering speeches from hand held computers that would have been beyond geeky to own just a few years ago. Seriously, now is the time when geekiness is being celebrated like never before, except for possibly the renaissance… see I can mention that I’ve heard of the renaissance without fear of being labelled a geek! Well, you may still label me as one but I take that as a firm compliment!
I’m worried though that there might be a backlash to this effect. The first is that, as the geeky look is being adopted by the naturally cool people that the geeks will begin to change their appearance to maintain the natural order of things. Geeks are always slightly behind in the fashions of the day so there’s a real danger we might see all the geeky kids changing their look to remain one step behind… if we start seeing pictures of groups of scientists down at CERN working on the large hadron collider in tracksuits we’ll know it’s already begun.
The second is that if geeks are successful and popular in their youth they may become lazy and ineffectual in later life. After all many are driven by their punishment at school to reek terrible vengeance by using their inherent geekiness to actually be happy and successful in later life and have a good job and all that stuff. If this is being flipped on its head and the ones that would traditionally bully the geeks are now the ones who will be successful in later life we could be headed for a world of brutal dictators and corporal wedgie based punishments.
On the other hand we could just be heading for a world where people are free to express who they are without fear of reprisals, where you don’t have to abandon your interest in a particular subject for fear that others will judge you for it. We’ve already seen Star Trek, Glee Clubs and particle physicists become cool whilst bullies themselves have started bullying online making them, in effect, just as geeky as the ones they needlessly bully, so what’s next? Whatever it is, one thing’s for sure – geekiness is officially cool.
