I think the opposite. When I was younger I heard from older geeks that they wished they had the things we did at that time, and so do I say to the younger geeks I meet.
Hey, new here. I'm just curious to if you think geek culture is dead. My personal thoughts is that it is not dead. Just watered down for the mainstream, I'm tired of people watering down stories to fit the current audience. Modem MCU and the Henry Cavill Witcher situation are peak examples of this, Henry genuinely wanted a faithful Witcher. Netflix did not. They knew that it wouldn't squeeze the most juice out the rag. Anyway just posting to see what you all think. This seems like a really chill place away from the chaos of social media. Hope to be seeing you more.
I think the opposite. When I was younger I heard from older geeks that they wished they had the things we did at that time, and so do I say to the younger geeks I meet.
Geek culture has always been commodity fetishism. Your favorite TV show, movie, video game, comic book, sff novel, operating system, programming language, RPG, text editor, or even heavy metal album is not a substitute for having an actual personality.
(This is as much a reminder for myself as an admonishment to everybody else.)
This goes without saying and you should focus on internal aspects of yourself first.
In my experience geek culture has always been a way to get away from rampant consumerism and the lack of creativity of the mainstream. Now it feels like it's been turned into a mindless money maker instead of a meaningful hobby. With anime going mainstream, companies now know what sells and they are gonna pump out nothing but that. Marvel has been milked so hard it's crazy. It just used to be a safe space and now it doesn't always feel like that anymore. Though I do agree that making a part of yourself the only thing there is dumb.
No I don't think it is dead either. You just have to look in the right places. IRC, Lemmy, Mastodon, The Fediverse in general, XMPP, Personal Blogs, The Small Web, Support Forums, etc are places where nerds are thriving perfectly fine. Usually geeks gather in niche places, if there is some sort of natural barrier to a place on the internet, geeks are sure to be there. If you would like talk to a few join us on IRC. I hang out on libera.chat in ##programming room. Come out it check if you would like. There are a lot of interesting people there. If you have any sort of niche hobbies try joining a niche community for it. It will be full of geeks and you can have some fun :)
I misread the title as Greek culture and entered this post fully expecting to read an account of the state of Greece, gyros and percy jackson.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
i enjoy the Report of the Week reference. and i too initially read this as 'Greek.'
i hope geekdom is going strong. i feel like it's easier to feel in tune with geek culture when you do geek things IRL, and i haven't really connected with anyone who shares geek interests IRL in a while, but oh wouldn't it be nice!
the smallweb sounds geeky, but it just feels different to me. perhaps my mental idea of geek culture has inadvertently become infused with nostalgia. current geek things don't feel as magical to me, but that could also stem from not really feeling like i'm part of any sort of community.
No. Geek culture is not dead. When I walk past my local gaming shop and see it full of happy geeks I am somewhat envious that I no longer feel I fit in that tribe... but I'm working on it.
After maybe 20 years of renouncing my geekdom due to shame and societal pressure I am finding my way back. Geeks are some of the most interesting people on the planet and as I trawl around the small web I am finding more and more of them.
I'm also contacting them by email and they are replying. The tribe is there. Ignore what the mainstream is doing... the pure Geek culture is very much alive, you just have to know where to find it.
It's actually quite nice, isn't it?, that there is some acceptance of Geek culture from the mainstream. But of course they're going to dilute it, get it wrong, rob it of its essence while popularising and monetising it.