The Coconut League

I’ve been invited to several events recently that were under the mantle of “geekdom”. You know the ones I mean – the ones that try to make geekery a socially acceptable badge of pride. The ones claiming that geeks are cool, and that women can be geeks too.
Which is totally cool with me, because being a geek girl I subscribe to all of that.

What I don’t subscribe to:
WORKING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA, OR WORKING WITH THE INTERNET IN GENERAL, DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU A GEEK.

If working with computers made you a geek, pretty much every person in the civilised world would be a geek.
If using the internet made you a geek, see above.
If working with media made you a geek, geeks would suddenly be 1000% cooler. The internet is no longer the wild frontier only reserved for the toughest nerds, it is a medium. If a marketing campaign designer is not a geek, a social networks campaign designer is not one either.*

So if 90% of the visitors to such an event are working in social media, and show no sign of geekiness other than that – I am starting to wonder if the word “geek” has suddenly changed meaning, and whether or not it includes me any more.
“Oh, I work in social media, tee hee, I’m such a geek!”

To me, geek has always been a mindset. It’s not about what you work with – I can define myself in terms of an art geek, a music geek, a comics geek, or a science geek simultaneously and independently – or even if your interests are very broad or very defined. It also doesn’t have to do with how socially acceptable your interests are, even though most geeks do tend towards fringe interests (if they do because those are oriented towards geeks or if they are oriented towards geeks because only geeks take an interest in them remains a chicken-or-egg problem). I certainly have no problem with identifying sports geeks, or drinking geeks (well, there has always been a certain undeniable geekery surrounding good wines anyway) or even cheerleading geeks.
And because you’re a geek doesn’t mean you can’t have other, completely normal, interests, or even lead a completely normal, boring life.

No, to be a geek to me is defined by the willingness and pleasure in taking a deeper-than-circumstantial interest in the things you are doing and the things you are enjoying. It basically means to have an open mind to the point where you are not ashamed of being called embarrassing for it. And it means to never, ever, want to stop learning.
My father never worked with tech his entire life, yet he got an Apple Macintosh and taught himself how to make databases on it when he needed it (This was in the 80es, when computers were rare.). He is also not beyond doing hours of obscure literature research for a throwaway topic or a party speech.
Would he be defined as a geek by means of what he works with, or what he is interested in in general? No. But does he classify as a geek in this definition? Definitely, yes.

You can argue that there is a geek subculture. Of course. But it is very broad. Does knowing Star Wars make you a geek? Many would agree. But then, everyone knows Star Wars these days. Does being able to repair your computer’s network connection make you a geek? Probably to your parents and grandparents, unless they are also geeks. But it is also a very necessary skill in most offices these days.
Do many geeks work in engineering? Certainly. But not necessarily more than work in design, or in management, or on building sites**. And they are old or young, male or female, muscular and sporty or fat and nerdy, and everything in between. They may never have touched a science fiction book in their lives, or they might take an extreme interest in free climbing (Actually, free climbing is very geeky in my book.). Or they might just be a clerk, with a family and 2½ kids, a person you would pass by daily and never waste a second glance on.
Yes, it’s true. THEY ARE AMONG US. THEY LOOK JUST LIKE US AND THEY’RE GEEKY!

Do I know people that work with social media that qualify as geeks? Oh, yes. Plenty of them.
But defining yourself as a geek just because you work with social media? Bzzt. Sit down, try again.

* This doesn’t mean people in marketing aren’t geeks (I know lots of them who are) but that they’re not geeks because they work in marketing. They’re just geeks.
** Actually, I know a whole lot more geeks that work with art than geeks that work in engineering. This might just be my special subculture, though.