

Ask HN: Is this the end of geek? - exgeek

I'm watching language corruption in action...<p>I remember seeing and hearing an increasing number of people referring to themselves as nerds back during the first .com bubble. Eager to associate themselves with the massive IPO valuations for companies built by genuine nerds, of course they seemed to stop that self labeling when the bubble burst. But now it seems that geek is the new "hotness".<p>http://geekadvancement.com/ and the twitter tag #iamageek is now making everyone who has seen the new star trek film proudly proclaim "I AM A GEEK". I know i sound like some old geezer but it seems to me like the "social media mavens" are actively using the word to described themselves so some of the facebook,google,twitter magic rubs off on them.<p>Hacker of course had its definition troubles but it seems to of somewhat come back to its original meaning. My Question is this: Is this the end of geek as we know it?
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systemtrigger
I have never been comfortable advertising myself as a geek because to me
there's no way to distinguish oneself using that word without coming across as
a wannabe or fanboy. You don't crown yourself smart. When somebody today tells
me they're a geek my private reaction is "what specifically are you a geek
of?" If it's "social media" then I'm starting to lose interest because there
are no skills involved. I'm thinking "for chrissakes Shaquille O'Neil is on
Twitter." If these people want tech cred they've got to lose the "Hi, I'm Bob.
I am a big social media geek." Although I suppose today that gets you more
female admirers than "Hi I'm __, I'm a hacker working on a project that __."

Words evolve. Language corruption is a well-documented phenomenon in
linguistics. The word _geek_ is a good example. Geek started off dodgy then it
turned edgy and now that it has become so popular its connotation bares little
resemblance to the original. Another example is the word _awesome_ which used
to be reserved only for truly magnificent, spectacular things; over time the
edge dulled and we now refer to things as common as potato salad as "awesome."

For an interesting lecture on language evolution listen to John McWhorter:
[http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/142733/Audio/Lectures/Story%20of%...](http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/142733/Audio/Lectures/Story%20of%20Human%20Language%20-%20John%20McWhorter/03%20How%20Language%20Changes%20-%20Sound%20Change.mp3)

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buugs
Out goes the geek and in comes the hacker.

