Are you affected by what is considered “cool” and what is considered “geeky”?
Tamara: I hate to admit it, but yes. It used to be that I would try too hard to be cool and I would be upset by anything that made me seem like a geek. Now that I have accepted geekery… I’m still caught up in the stereotypes. There are times I go out of my way to try to get into something just because it’s weird or geeky, or I will automatically turn my nose up at something mainstream/cool. Ultimately, I stick to what I like because I like it, but I admit my choices of what media/technology/places I want to investigate are still influenced by the same old dichotomy. There, I said it. XD
Steve: Yes, even if I don’t always want to admit it. As I identify as a geek I automatically pay attention to what’s geeky, if only for the sake of being knowledgeable. As for cool, I’m also fascinated with the social phenomena behind what makes things cool – so even if I don’t care about being cool, I follow it anyway. This, really, is sort of ironic.
Ellen: Only in the way that I tend to never understand that which is “cool,” (Torn jeans, crocs, cheaply made expensive jewelry,) and often foam at the mouth with glee at that which is “geeky.” (insert endless list involving gaming, star wars, history, math/science jokes, etc).
Serdar: I am, and I’m more or less making my peace with it. It’s important to know this stuff, if only in the sense of what you’re in competition with and why (“cool”), but also what resources might be passing under your nose unheralded (“geeky”).
I don’t have a single Apple product. That said, Apple is rumored to be introducing a smaller iPad later this year for a reasonable price tag. I might pick that up as a way to get a toehold in the Apple ecosystem and have something else to write about. Why cut myself off from a perfectly good set of opportunities?
On the creative side, I look at all those Gray Shades and Games of Hunger (ho ho) and tell myself, am I “affected” by any of this? Not in the sense that people who read these things may not read my books (a theory I don’t subscribe to), but as in what all of those other folks, hate them or be indifferent to them as you will, are doing right.