You can attribute the title of this post to Andrea Baker, a social web evangelist for the U.S. intelligence community, arguing Government 2.0 is changing the political face on Capitol Hill:
I say this with the upmost respect, but nerds and geeks have indeed taken over the world. The digital divide of Gen Xer’s and Millennials vs. Boomers in office is clear. Boomers and old generations are more likely to get their news and information about Government via traditional news media on television or from a printed newspaper. While the younger generations are more and more getting their news from social media Web sites and other alternative methods.
But the nerds and geeks are not all boys.
I wonder if Andrea and other readers of the above ZDNet story caught the June 16, 2008 issue of Newsweek, profiling Tufts University’s Nerd Girls, part of a blog post of mine over the summer when I wrote about female geek chic?
In “Revenge of the Nerdette,” Jessica Bennett and Jennie Yabroff wrote:
Today’s girl geeks are members of the first generation to have been truly reared on technology. They grew up on gender-neutral movies like “Hackers” and “The Matrix,” and saw the transformation of Willow on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” from awkward geek to smart and sassy sex symbol. They’ve watched the geeky pursuits of technology and comic books transform from fringe subculture to pop mainstream, and they’ve capitalized on that geek-chic mentality to elbow their way into it.
It’s fair to brand millennial geek Rebecca Corliss a Nerdette. What do you say, repcor?
And no discussion on nerds and geeks is complete without a nod to nerdcore hip hop mastermind MC Frontalot, who I met at the Boston International Film Festival last fall. I think most members of society will enjoy the below video, some by audio-only, others by audio and video.
Were you careful of the grue?
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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{ 9 comments }
Hah! I’ve never been called out for being a nerd before. Are you sure I’m a nerd?
Well, if blogging/tweeting/digital-existing= nerddom… Bring it on.
With that definition, there’s lots of lady nerds.
Rebecca Corliss´s last blog post..Youuuuuuuu are being stupid, Soulja Boy.
Rebecca, you are a nerd.
However, I would like to point out that you have not yet seen me in my “You might be eaten by a grue t-shirt”.
Thanks for that! I still have no idea what a grue is…..
Stiennon´s last blog post..Fifth level of threat: information warfare
Rebecca Rebecca, I didn’t call you a nerd. A nerdette, though, yes!
LC, thanks for backing me up. I’d like to see you in that t-shirt. Maybe you could explain the grue to Stiennon.
Ari, thanks for a nice companion piece about geeks and our world domination. I hadn’t read the two articles you linked, but have them open for reading now.
It is true, geeks are not just boys, but no matter what label or industry you can talk about, women (girls) have always been second class citizens. I still have women who tell me all the time thank you for proving you can break the glass ceiling. It took a long time, but its definitely been worth the ride. I am more appreciative of knowing what struggles I had before I was able to be truly appreciated by my current employment.
I definitely think I was raised a geek, but not just with tech, with life. I think the whole details should be a deep dive blog on why I am a geek on my own website. And while Hackers was a movie I did watch over and over, it was yes I could relate to Jolie’s character, but I have had a continuous crush on Johnny Lee Miller to this day, as well as Matthew Lillard, crazy I know, but I dig the weirdos.
So all the female geeks that read my blog and yours on the East Coast, we got a conference in New York City this weekend. Please join me there so we can continue our evil plan to rid boys of their cooties.
Andrea Baker´s last blog post..She’s Geeky in NYC December 5-7, 2008
I prefer dork, techie and weirdo. Geek and nerd sound so degrading, lol.
Jon Bishop´s last blog post..How To Change Your Twitter Name Without Losing Followers
I like to think of myself as a hidden techie. I don’t think I am fully transformed yet, still trying to keep my street cred alive, haha. Granted I never had any to begin with.
Craig´s last blog post..Be aware, but don’t get carried away
A new year and I am still proud to be a nerd. A weirdo in middle and high school. Nerds was an uncool word back then, but now, I think its perfectly acceptable.
LOL, great post and it is entirely true. Who would have thought that geeks would have so much strength and pull with the world wide web and in business.
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