The Nerd Bubble and its Inevitable Collapse

It seems as if every contemporary identity conforms tightly to passively consuming the dismal excretions of this benighted age. Wherever you look, there are people insisting that what they are consuming is correct and necessary to a happy life. There is always the insistence that 'my kind need X too' (as if it were a surprising epiphany) and other ridiculous rhetoric such as inherent uniqueness. These beliefs have always been enthusiastically embraced, ruthlessly mocked, or completely ignored depending on the relative wisdom and maturity of the observer. There is one sort of contemporary identity that excels at absorbing all others and is generally 'on the make' as they say.

In 2007 there began an incredible shift in the behavior of Ur Hipsters, and/or they were found to possess certain interests and traits that, innocently enough, bordered the long dormant cultural powerhouse sometimes referred to as 'nerd culture'. Suddenly the coolest individual at the bar who liked the right music, played on the most epic amateur sports team, fucked the most attractive people, and partied the hardest was busy painting W40K miniatures as a hobby, played D&D on Sundays, and knew how to code. By 2013 there is a weird sense in the air that 'nerdy' pursuits and habits are necessary just to communicate.

It is as a certain bad 80's movie had prophesied. Like any decent historical inevitability, the rise of nerd culture was complex and in many ways self-fulfilling. The smart, awkward kid getting bullied in the 70's and 80's grew up into a normalized yuppie or yupster or suave po-mo individualist making good money doing engineering work or intense research or crucial computer work. Good or bad, they acted as the lifeblood of modernity. Their progeny, the current generation of 'young nerds' and/or the current 'nerd wave' movement, is an entirely different animal. Arguably, despite the surprising population of well-adjusted and balanced nerds, there is evidence to suggest that the much of the modern wave is quixotic, dysfunctional, and generally disinterested in aging measures of success such as social popularity, physical fitness, conformity, and party intensity.

I always get the idea that the mainstream nerd movement left the rails completely in the early 2000s. I get this idea because of the link posted above, wherein (and you might have missed this) a reality TV show tailored to nerds actually existed. The comicbook-style text boxes were so tasteful, so apt. There never was a nerd movement as such (as it was anecdotal to many other factors), but the word itself has gained such traction with increasing numbers of people, that one might rightly be said to exist at this point. And to be perfectly blunt, from the perspective of the modern identity fetish, it was probably a long time coming. Also completely inevitable. Mind you: I am no expert on nerd history, nor would I ever claim to be one.

News for the Internet: I do not Not have a mobile phone.

I am sick to death of mobile content and the big existential stink about that shit. It's not going to end the world if people start having Pavlovian responses to touchscreens and ringtones. If anything we can construct an industry on that business, which is good, because our current vacuum economy is starting to sump. Whaddup?

Here on the internet you get a lot of offers to use, say, some useless app on your mobile device. Mobile devices (will we even call them phones without any sense of irony in 20 years?) already do all kinds of shit. But as I log into my account here I get news that something will look great in my mobile. I guess I owe it to the 3.4 people who have viewed this blog once with a mobile phone to ensure it looks good on a tiny screen when you could probably be talking to the people you're with, watching the road, interpreting your surroundings, or facing an uncomfortable situation bravely.

I'm hardly even in step or in touch or in contact with my generation, but they look at their phones enough times each day that you could harness that action for enough electricity to power their electronics with energy left to sell into the grid. If we do enough little things like this we could eventually create localized, public, energy markets. Maybe just electricity, but we can do things with electricity now.

Anyways I'm tired of mobile content. Give it up, internet. You and I both know I'm not on my phone right now.