Geek. Once was an insult. Now, it’s almost a compliment. It all depends on who you are talking to. First of all, do not confuse a geek with a nerd. A nerd is an overtly studious person, someone who is always studying, and has no social life. Sure, a lot of times it is a fine line between a nerd and a geek, but you are about to learn the differences.

Geek : noun. Slang. 1) an odd or ridiculous person, 2) A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

That is how the dictionary defines “geek”. But really, the geeks of today’s world are neither of those defined above. “Geek” has traditionally been used as a derogatory remark, meaning a freak of some kind. It evolved into a cruel slang used on someone with inadequate social skills, then to someone heavily involved with computers, science fiction, and other technologies. Today, “geeks” might still hold the same infamous meaning, but it also applies to the group of people who will rule the Information Age. Today, a geek is a person who loves computer and use them effectively to communicate and access information, or just plain computer/Internet savvy. To quote from www.geekculture.com, “Far from being a weak or meek character, a geek possesses the courage to be different. It is a label that one can wear proudly, without shame, for it implies intelligence and originality”.

Geeks have suddenly become powerful…AND fashionable. The bloodstreams of today’s world lie in the hands of the few and the proud computer geeks. Look at Bill Gates, a model geek to many other geeklings around the world. (Then of course, there are the anti-Gates geeks such as those pro-Macintosh and pro-Unix. Et cetera.) Some of the geeks are also hackers, and the hackers have just another set of cultures, but we’re not going into that.

And as you’ve seen earlier, geek culture does exist. Geek culture is extremely anti-mainstream, very non-conformist. You’d see many geeks with different kind of hair colors, dress codes, and definitely strong sense of individuality. They don’t care what others might think. Most geeks do share common interests for science fictions, science, and technologies. Some branch out to ancient, celtic, and medieval myths and fantasy fictions because of their experiences with the role-playing game called “Dungeons & Dragons”. (Think “Clue” but with all sorts of mythical races and classes, special powers, and creatures.) Pretty much, most of the geeks have all different backgrounds and interests but mainly surrounded by computers, computer games, and science.

"All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
Prime example of how geek culture is going main stream.
This inside joke of computer games started with a line
of badly translated sentence on a Sega game back in the days.

There are general levels of geeks according to Geek.com. First are the Beginner/Wannabe Geeks who might not know much about computers, but they are above average when it comes to computers and technologies. They also love science and share other geek interests. Then there are the Intermediate Geeks who can write their own computer programs, and might be able to fix your computer just a little bit. The Advance Geeks are those who can do a lot with the computer. Of course, there are those who make us geeks look really good, the Super Geek or the Elite (or how they’d spell it, 31173, each number is for the similar looking alphabet) who can do anything with computer. There are also many who would call themselves Stealth Geeks for the ability to hide their geekiness beneath the normal surface. These would be the people who you wouldn’t have thought in a million years that they are geeks until you really get to know them.

I’m personally somewhere between the Wannabe and Intermediate geek. I have always been science and technologies, and sci-fi literatures and movies. I didn’t think too much about my ability to find my way to use a computer, and my obsession with chemistry lab and physical science in general. It wasn’t so obvious to my friends back when I was home that I was such a geek because being good at science was very desirable. My parents though were supportive of me because they were secretly hoping that this one would turn into an engineer.

When I got to the US, that geek in me got to blossom. My college friends showed me the way for the Geeks. They introduced me to the Internet when it was just started in 1995, taught me to code HTML before most of the people know what that is, and re-introduced me to the joy of science fiction with Star Trek series, Farscape on Sci-Fi Channel, and much more. The next thing I know, I was camping out on Hollywood Boulevard with hundreds of other Star Wars geeks for the first-day showing of “Star Wars: Episode I” at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre. Then I ended up in a dot-com, obviously surrounded by mainly geeks. At last I feel belong, and being a geek finally makes sense again.

Oakley and her geek friends inside the Mann's Chinese.

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