Gadget wristwatches are all the rage. “The Big Bang Theory” often tops TV ratings. Gaming is definitely mainstream. Has society embraced geek culture?
Are you a nerd or a geek?
In the article “We’re All Nerds Now,” Noam Cohen writes:
In 2005, Randall Munroe, a young NASA robotics expert, posted to the web a comic about the mystical number pi. Among the infinite string of digits were letters that spelled out, “Help I’m trapped in a universe factory.”
His pi comic spread quickly, and nearly a decade later Mr. Munroe sits atop a small empire built around xkcd, an online comic revered by science students, computer programmers and Silicon Valley workers.
On Wednesday, Mr. Munroe’s first book, “What If?,” debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times nonfiction hardcover best-seller list. “What If?” is a series of questions and answers on technically bizarre topics, like what would happen if the entire world directed laser pointers at the moon. (Not much, it turns out, unless you used really, really big lasers.)
And, as you may have heard, Apple last week introduced a new version of an old geek totem — the gadget wristwatch. With millions watching via computer, Tim Cook, the Apple chief executive, who has an industrial engineering degree, unveiled three versions of the watch, hoping to broaden the appeal of a fashion accessory traditionally worn by the calculus crowd.
Never before has the boundary between geek culture and mainstream culture been so porous. Beyond Mr. Munroe’s popularity and the national obsession with Apple products, other examples abound. Whether it is TV series like “The Big Bang Theory” and “Silicon Valley,” or comic-book movies such as this year’s top-grossing title, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” or the runner-up, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” or fantasy-based fiction like the “Game of Thrones” books (and HBO show), once-fringe, nerd-friendly obsessions like gadgets, comic books and fire-breathing dragons are increasingly everyone’s obsessions.
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …
— Are you a nerd or a geek?
— Has our society fully embraced geek culture? Can someone now declare, without shame or embarrassment, “I am a nerd”? Is being a nerd or a geek something to be proud of?
— Is it cool to be a nerd or a geek in your school? Or, is being good at science, or the high scorer on the math team, still not going to win a teenager any popularity awards?
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