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Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 08:39 am
I'm trying to tease out a curious change (since, oh, ten years ago) in the meaning of the word geek.

[Poll #1167798]
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 05:40 pm (UTC)
My poll is examining one facet, not the entire word. The question is: if a person makes a reference to a very popular show or movie, is the person then considered more geeky for having done so, less geeky for having done so, or neither?
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 10:18 pm (UTC)
Knowledge of something in popular culture is orthagonal to geekiness, knowledge of something obscure boosts your geek score.

I probably get geek points for total ignorance of any shows on TV, I have to rack my brains to come up with even the name of a current show, but if someone quotes "Lost" in conversation, that's not geeky. If they make a "6" with their fingers, look through the hole and say "be seeing you", that's geeky.

On the other hand, if someone quotes some fact that is trivial minutiae about some current popular TV show, that is geeky.