4 ms·

I think that nerd culture has just gone mainstream. It's far from dying.

capableweb 3y ago
Indeed. And "real" nerd culture has just became deeper, and more specialized. Back in the day, a lot of the nerds were into the same type of things, while now there are sub-groups. Some nerds are anime-nerds, others are programming-nerds, and not every programming-nerd is an anime-nerd, and vice-versa. And the amount of nerd-sub groups is huge, every quarter or so I encounter a nerdy topic and sub-group I had no idea about before.
- ehnto 3y ago
  Being from a small rural Australian town, it was amazing when I found my nerds in the big city. You do end up a bit pigeonholed when everything gets too specific. I think that is why I like makerspaces and things like that. You get all sorts.
  - capableweb 3y ago
    I had the same experience. It wasn't until I was around ~15 or so I discovered our tiny place actually had two whole other people who were into computers. At one point, I moved to a bigger area and discovered there were full groups of up to 20 people per group that also liked computers. Opened up a whole new world.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  There are so many groups and most of them don't regularly pop up in mainstream culture. The fact that mainstream has co-opted many of the past nerdy things doesn't mean they are gone. They have just moved to new not so visible things. And those are hard to see in sea of all the content produced. Independent podcast and comics are a thing. And then there is novels and such from China, Korea and Japan. Some of these more mainstream already lot less.
PaulHoule 3y ago
Yogi Berra: “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded”
- capableweb 3y ago
  (Warning: quote attribution nerdary ahead) > In conclusion, the earliest instances of this remark were anonymous. The comedians Rags Ragland and Ukie Sherin employed the quip, as did the writer John McNulty. In addition, there is some evidence that Yogi Berra employed the joke, but in all cases the jest was already in circulation. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/08/29/too-crowded/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/08/29/too-crowded/
  - mc32 3y ago
    The others before McNulty in 1943, the others were thematic, but not there. Berra was born in ‘25. It’s possible in the days before the internet that two distinct an unconnected people came up with a similar expression, or, given baseball traveling maybe he picked it up from others along the way. So I think it’s a tossup between Berra and McNulty. The others are on their way there but not there.
localplume 3y ago
When you have a Dungeons and Dragons movie hitting over 100mil in the box office, and when comic book movies are some of the highest grossing, i think its pretty safe to say nerd culture is incredibly mainstream.
- peoplefromibiza 3y ago
  "nerd culture" is not about what but how. There were popular D&D shows already in the 80s. Most comic book movies are simply bad, and "real" nerds hate them. No nerd loved the last Star Wars trilogy or Rings of power or Wonder Woman 1984 or the nth spider-verse repetition, mostly because studios take something popular among nerds and change it to please modern audience which is exactly what's wrong with the so called "nerd culture" today: it's not a culture.
  - anthk 3y ago
    This. Also, the term "roguelike" for action-adventure games. FFS, if you play a roguelike like Slashem you will know all of these "roguelike" wannabe's have nothing to do with the genre. There are just rehased Zelda-likes with permadeath.
goodpoint 3y ago
> 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.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  The term "MCU" being in the common cultral lexicon.
  - tmtvl 3y ago
    Mellon Carnegie is a very respectable institute, I don't see what that has to do with nerd culture.
  - peoplefromibiza 3y ago
    except since phase 4 MCU is now definitely a synonym for "boring, neutered, ill-concived, weak, pale shadow of former self, stuff° Kudos to Disney that was able to completely ruin it in just a decade.
    - madeofpalk 3y ago
      This only proves the point.
      - peoplefromibiza 3y ago
        the point was that Most "nerd" interests like SciFi have been neutered if not completely bent out of shape while going mainstream So no, it's not nerd culture that is dying, it's mainstream "nerdism" that committed suicide. Nerd culture was never mainstream, MCU wasn't nerd culture becoming mainstream, it was "squeeze the lemon and hope it sticks". And it did for a while, but not understanding what's the appeal of nerd culture for nerds, they went back to producing blockbusters that kinda resembles marvel if you squint hard enough, but it's actually the same thing of watching independence day set in a World where they replaced Jeff Goldblum with a guy dressed like a superhero. Nerd are still enjoying their nerdy stuff, while completely ignoring mainstream travesties from multi-billion-dollars corporations. MCU is not the same MCU nerds were crazy about when they were kids, in the same way kids today consider what we called nerd stuff back then as "old people garbage"
HeckFeck 3y ago
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 :(
- walthamstow 3y ago
  Other nerds don't have to care about the same stuff as you, they just have to be interested. I am still tight with my group of 7 guys from school and we are all nerds but hardly share a single interest. We are interested in hearing about each other's niche shit and that's what keeps us together.
  - capableweb 3y ago
    > I am still tight with my group of 7 guys from school While that's nice and all, it's not super helpful advice for people who are trying to make new friends, as we cannot go back in time and repeat school from younger days...
    - walthamstow 3y ago
      You appear to have missed my point. My second para is simply an example, not the point I'm making. The point is: your friends don't have to be interested in exactly the same stuff as you, they just need to be interested in you.
      - capableweb 3y ago
        Ah, but the parent made the explicit point of trying to find people they have two specific topics in common with. To argue that they shouldn't, doesn't help them in their quest for what they are specifically asking about. It's ok to want to look for people with common interests, just as it's ok to feel it's enough to spend time with people you don't have a lot of common interests with.
- capableweb 3y ago
10729287 3y ago
... It's where I personnaly differentiate nerd culture and Geek culture.
RobotToaster 3y ago
I think it would be more accurate to say the mainstream has appropriated nerd culture.
PurpleRamen 3y ago
The objects of nerd culture went mainstream, but the nerds themselves did IMHO not. And because of the change that mainstream brought on their objects, nerds are losing their culture. People can like the same thing, but for different reasons. And this becomes a problem when people are not aware of other people's reason and just start changing them, making them more matching their own reasons. So at some point, the traits that the original fans like are disappearing, getting replaces by the preferred traits of the new fans. We've seen this many times. Star Trek being probably a very notable example, where the fancy new original Series was a great disappointment for many fans, while the (semi)comedy-version from a fan became the preferred love of this fans.
- anthk 3y ago
  Well, TNG put the bar very high on quality. New series, don't. On video games, even simple games like BSD trek and Super-Star-Trek on Python3 have great designs and still be played. The same with roguelikes like Nethack/Slashem.

Indeed. And "real" nerd culture has just became deeper, and more specialized. Back in the day, a lot of the nerds were into the same type of things, while now there are sub-groups. Some nerds are anime-nerds, others are programming-nerds, and not every programming-nerd is an anime-nerd, and vice-versa. And the amount of nerd-sub groups is huge, every quarter or so I encounter a nerdy topic and sub-group I had no idea about before.

ehnto 3y ago
Being from a small rural Australian town, it was amazing when I found my nerds in the big city. You do end up a bit pigeonholed when everything gets too specific. I think that is why I like makerspaces and things like that. You get all sorts.
- capableweb 3y ago
  I had the same experience. It wasn't until I was around ~15 or so I discovered our tiny place actually had two whole other people who were into computers. At one point, I moved to a bigger area and discovered there were full groups of up to 20 people per group that also liked computers. Opened up a whole new world.
Ekaros 3y ago
There are so many groups and most of them don't regularly pop up in mainstream culture. The fact that mainstream has co-opted many of the past nerdy things doesn't mean they are gone. They have just moved to new not so visible things. And those are hard to see in sea of all the content produced. Independent podcast and comics are a thing. And then there is novels and such from China, Korea and Japan. Some of these more mainstream already lot less.

PaulHoule 3y ago

Yogi Berra: “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded”

capableweb 3y ago
(Warning: quote attribution nerdary ahead) > In conclusion, the earliest instances of this remark were anonymous. The comedians Rags Ragland and Ukie Sherin employed the quip, as did the writer John McNulty. In addition, there is some evidence that Yogi Berra employed the joke, but in all cases the jest was already in circulation. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/08/29/too-crowded/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/08/29/too-crowded/
- mc32 3y ago
  The others before McNulty in 1943, the others were thematic, but not there. Berra was born in ‘25. It’s possible in the days before the internet that two distinct an unconnected people came up with a similar expression, or, given baseball traveling maybe he picked it up from others along the way. So I think it’s a tossup between Berra and McNulty. The others are on their way there but not there.

localplume 3y ago

When you have a Dungeons and Dragons movie hitting over 100mil in the box office, and when comic book movies are some of the highest grossing, i think its pretty safe to say nerd culture is incredibly mainstream.

peoplefromibiza 3y ago
"nerd culture" is not about what but how. There were popular D&D shows already in the 80s. Most comic book movies are simply bad, and "real" nerds hate them. No nerd loved the last Star Wars trilogy or Rings of power or Wonder Woman 1984 or the nth spider-verse repetition, mostly because studios take something popular among nerds and change it to please modern audience which is exactly what's wrong with the so called "nerd culture" today: it's not a culture.
- anthk 3y ago
  This. Also, the term "roguelike" for action-adventure games. FFS, if you play a roguelike like Slashem you will know all of these "roguelike" wannabe's have nothing to do with the genre. There are just rehased Zelda-likes with permadeath.

goodpoint 3y ago

> 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.

madeofpalk 3y ago
The term "MCU" being in the common cultral lexicon.
- tmtvl 3y ago
  Mellon Carnegie is a very respectable institute, I don't see what that has to do with nerd culture.
- peoplefromibiza 3y ago
  except since phase 4 MCU is now definitely a synonym for "boring, neutered, ill-concived, weak, pale shadow of former self, stuff° Kudos to Disney that was able to completely ruin it in just a decade.
  - madeofpalk 3y ago
    This only proves the point.
    - peoplefromibiza 3y ago
      the point was that Most "nerd" interests like SciFi have been neutered if not completely bent out of shape while going mainstream So no, it's not nerd culture that is dying, it's mainstream "nerdism" that committed suicide. Nerd culture was never mainstream, MCU wasn't nerd culture becoming mainstream, it was "squeeze the lemon and hope it sticks". And it did for a while, but not understanding what's the appeal of nerd culture for nerds, they went back to producing blockbusters that kinda resembles marvel if you squint hard enough, but it's actually the same thing of watching independence day set in a World where they replaced Jeff Goldblum with a guy dressed like a superhero. Nerd are still enjoying their nerdy stuff, while completely ignoring mainstream travesties from multi-billion-dollars corporations. MCU is not the same MCU nerds were crazy about when they were kids, in the same way kids today consider what we called nerd stuff back then as "old people garbage"

HeckFeck 3y ago

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 :(

walthamstow 3y ago
Other nerds don't have to care about the same stuff as you, they just have to be interested. I am still tight with my group of 7 guys from school and we are all nerds but hardly share a single interest. We are interested in hearing about each other's niche shit and that's what keeps us together.
- capableweb 3y ago
  > I am still tight with my group of 7 guys from school While that's nice and all, it's not super helpful advice for people who are trying to make new friends, as we cannot go back in time and repeat school from younger days...
  - walthamstow 3y ago
    You appear to have missed my point. My second para is simply an example, not the point I'm making. The point is: your friends don't have to be interested in exactly the same stuff as you, they just need to be interested in you.
    - capableweb 3y ago
      Ah, but the parent made the explicit point of trying to find people they have two specific topics in common with. To argue that they shouldn't, doesn't help them in their quest for what they are specifically asking about. It's ok to want to look for people with common interests, just as it's ok to feel it's enough to spend time with people you don't have a lot of common interests with.
capableweb 3y ago

10729287 3y ago

... It's where I personnaly differentiate nerd culture and Geek culture.

RobotToaster 3y ago

I think it would be more accurate to say the mainstream has appropriated nerd culture.

PurpleRamen 3y ago

The objects of nerd culture went mainstream, but the nerds themselves did IMHO not. And because of the change that mainstream brought on their objects, nerds are losing their culture. People can like the same thing, but for different reasons. And this becomes a problem when people are not aware of other people's reason and just start changing them, making them more matching their own reasons. So at some point, the traits that the original fans like are disappearing, getting replaces by the preferred traits of the new fans. We've seen this many times. Star Trek being probably a very notable example, where the fancy new original Series was a great disappointment for many fans, while the (semi)comedy-version from a fan became the preferred love of this fans.

anthk 3y ago
Well, TNG put the bar very high on quality. New series, don't. On video games, even simple games like BSD trek and Super-Star-Trek on Python3 have great designs and still be played. The same with roguelikes like Nethack/Slashem.