The Rise Of The Geek

Blessed are the geeks!
Many changes in modern British society can be summarised quite neatly by the ever-improving status of the geek. Once upon a time, computer programming or an interest in mathematics was considered to be the preserve of awkward bedroom-dwelling loners. Yet today, in a world where Bill Gates and Richard Branson are billionaires and The IT Crowd is a modern comedy classic, being a geek is something to be admired and envied rather than pitied or mocked.
This sea-change in society’s attitudes towards geeks is also encapsulated in American TV. Twenty years ago, Friends was the nation’s most popular comedy vehicle, with its glamorous stars sporting designer hairdos and agonising over first-world problems. Today, America’s biggest comedy export is The Big Bang Theory, which melds the time-honoured apartment-based sitcom formula with quantum physics and OCD references. The lead actors earn $1 million per episode – just as the Friends cast did – but the jokes about smelly cats have been replaced with string theory gags delivered in front of whiteboards full of advanced mathematics. Stephen Hawking has made two Big Bang cameos, and in a clever inversion of traditional geek-bashing, the character of astronaut and aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz is constantly derided for not having a doctoral degree or a PhD.
So what has transformed the geek into the hipster? When did chunky glasses and a love of Magic: The Gathering become de rigueur rather than outré? In large measure, we can thank the internet. Such is our devotion to the online world that we regard the programmers and designers responsible for it as heroes rather than nerds. Introducing yourself as a computer programmer at a dinner party will elicit coos of approval rather than awkward smiles nowadays, and spending your lunchhours huddled over a laptop has become the norm rather than the exception. Even a penchant for strange music and random facial hair has become a recognised trend; hipsters have expanded far beyond their spiritual home of Shoreditch into cafés and workspaces up and down the UK, introducing new generations to the dubious virtues of holed jumpers and caffeine addictions.
The rise of the geek is underlined by huge jumps in the number of students embarking on  science and technology qualifications. Chemistry and physics degree courses have seen a 50 per cent rise in demand since 2007, with computing science increasing almost as rapidly; indeed, computing is now one of the most popular subjects among university applicants. Despite claims that computing qualifications are less important as web design and programming become easier, the introduction of technology such as the Raspberry Pi and BBC Micro Bit into the nation’s schools underlines how vital computing skills will be among tomorrow’s graduates and entrepreneurs.
It’s also important to consider how popular culture has changed in the thirty years since the word “geek” invoked connotations of Adrian Mole or Dungeons & Dragons. In a world where the Queen plays Wii and Candy Crush Saga is bundled with Windows 10, gaming has stepped out of the shadows and become a staple component in modern daily life. This has dovetailed with spiralling interest in another obsession of geeks: comic books. It’s hard to overstate the popularity of film franchises like Iron Man or X-Men, while the runaway success of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones has seen millions of people binge-watching fantasy dramas that would have been dismissed as the province of nerds just two decades ago. How quickly times change.
Indeed, such is the mainstream acceptance of geekiness it’s difficult to describe this as a subculture any more. An appreciation of technology and science is no longer unusual, and a career in computing looks like an increasingly safe bet as the Internet of Things continues its remarkable expansion. We may finally have reached a point where the geeks really will inherit the Earth.