From time to time I get a letter from my Internet provider pointing out I’m an Extreme Techie because of my internet usage, wouldn’t I like to pay more for faster service? Well no, not yet. My present rate is locked in forever so I won’t change unless they degrade my service.
I do appreciate them calling me an Extreme Techie instead of a Geek, though. I first noticed the term when a parent of one of the kids in my Sunday school class said her boy loved watching Nova (a program about science) with his father. “He’s a real Geek,” she said. What a great way to get more of our kids interested in devoting themselves to fields that require discipline and hard work.
What do you think? Do you think American society devalues study and hard work? If you’re in another country what is it like where you are?
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs etc. have raised the status of Nerds. I’d love to be a Nerd. Jean, you are a Nerd. Be proud!
Sorry it’s Geek not Nerd. I’d rather be a Nerd.
bikehikebabe,
I’m both. I don’t feel proud but I am grateful. They both have brought me great joy.
Yes, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc. have definitely enhanced the image of nerds and geeks. Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple, Inc. and the fellow who single-handedly invented the first two Apple computers) were definitely geeks, and I think Jobs fit the description too.
I was kind of complimented a few weeks ago in this area. Our license operator class was being evaluated by folks from other power plants prior to their final evaluation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
I had just switched from a Palm phone to the new iPhone 5 and made a comment about the learning curve not being too bad. At that point, the evaluator from Nebraska said something like, “This site has more tech savvy older guys than I’ve seen anywhere. I can’t hardly even get my older instructors to try anything new.”
We have all kinds of parenting which is what really drives the value for study and hard work. I see very intelligent youngsters wasting their time because their parents do not have time for them and simply finance their idleness as well as parents who nag the hell out of their children to study and work hard and quite a few recipients ending up as suicides at the extreme or nervous wrecks at some point. A balanced approach is rare to come by for the simple reason that we now have a couple of generation of young parents who have not seen hard days that their parents saw. I have blogged about this phenomenon and if you are interested shall send you a link.
Naturally talented youngsters who can be classified as geeks or nerds are also to be seen and I find them lacking in social skills and lonely. They are brought to the local park and sit around playing games on their hand held gadgets while other children play other vigourous games.
Ranjan became a geek/nerd by accident. He got his Masters degree in English literature and a Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication and Journalism. He got employed by a Multi Media company who taught him how to use a computer and the rest is history.
Within my family itself I can see various types of attitudes towards study and hard work and I think that in a mad cap family like mine, everything works and no one starves.
Mike,
That sounds like a great compliment. Learning new things is a lot easier when we do it regularly.
Rummuser,
How do you know the kids you call nerds and geeks are lonely? As the saying goes, they might just be listening to a different drummer. Being a Mac fan I’m grateful that Steve Wozniak spent his youth playing with electronics!
It is true that the last couple of generations have known mostly good times and take them for granted. They could be in for a shock.
Rummuser’s comment is right on.
Some geeks/nerds might be lonely because most kids aren’t that & may not connect with them. I suppose geeks/nerds are so centered that they don’t need other people to validate them.
I meant Rummuser is right on about kid’s & their parent’s lives are too easy now. They don’t know “the value of study & hard work.”
It is a big question/debate right now in NZ. There are newscasts, journalists, other debating ‘talking’ about the situation particularly in the tertiary sector with University degrees at the forefront.
Humanities/Arts had somehow fallen right behind and it was better to have a recognised ‘business’ angle i.e. engineering, law, science. But now it is becoming obvious in some sectors that the analytic Arts is as good, if not better.
I remember when I first when to Uni and was embarking on Philosophy and people said “what is it’s use” well it seems now that if you have that skill but don’t/can’t do law – it’s very much a good way into some top level ethics and other jobs.
Also what happened in NZ was that apprenticeships in manual sort of jobs were taken away; you instead did block courses at technical colleges. They now are beginning to see that hasn’t worked as the employees are jumping ship easily as they are not getting enough of something…(I can’t remember the exact reasons) and there is a call to bring back apprenticeships/on the job stuff.
Some of my young friends who have got degrees in all kinds of fields, can’t even get out of the rut of their jobs they held to earn money whilst at Uni. So they are still kitchen hand, somewhere or they take off overseas to teach English.
Some of course, do get out of the rut…and go on. But it doesn’t seem to happen overnight – i.e. I’ve got my degree, so here I am!
But then again, even without a degree – i.e. I’ve got experience, see good CV, so here I am!
For me, it is more of a “keeping brain functioning” – some say “well I suppose you might get a job from it all” but I’m not particularly worried whether I do or not. I never had the chance when I was a teenager or later in marriage to have a life like this…I now want to learn all those things I missed out on!
bikehikebabe,
I agree that if the kids are lonely it’s quite possible they haven’t found other kids that share their interests. It’s not that anything is wrong with them. When C. S. Lewis was in an English public school, with its emphasis on sports, his greatest joy was when he was able to escape to read. He did just fine once he was able to choose his environment.
Cathy,
Thanks for the input! Here in the U.S. the powers that be decided that all kids should be able to go to college–that was the only ticket to success. That was a huge boon for the colleges, but not necessarily for the students. The prices went through the roof and a huge number of students wound/are winding up in debt with no way of paying it off. A large percentage of people still struggling with student loans are over 65. At least Obama has now pointed out the complete emphasis on college is probably the wrong way to go.
I read an article a few months ago saying Europe has the right idea because it also recognizes that some kids are better off having the option of vocational education. But the end of the article said it doesn’t make as much difference as one might hope—there aren’t enough jobs there either.
I agree with you—when I first heard about college when I was in grammar school I knew I wanted to go. I wanted to learn more. I did major in physics partly because I knew I wouldn’t have trouble getting an interesting job when I graduated. One of my main goals in life was to avoid being stuck in a boring job. I do just fine learning on my own and am grateful I have the leisure to do it.
Jean asked: “Do you think American society devalues study and hard work?”
No.
I can’t remember when higher education came with a “loan” at one point it was free and all you needed was a way to finance your living costs…
Jobs were easy to get over the Summer and so students usually didn’t need another top-up during the semesters to have a relatively good life!
Well both those things disappeared – courses and degrees cost wherever you are in the sector. Getting summer time job has gone as well because everyone who is working year round, wants to work more over the summer…
Now you can get a loan if you qualify (different ratios depending on your parents/other financial status); you can get other things on loan including course related costs and a living allowance. All need to be paid back. Currently though that is interest free. Many of the scams like taking the course related costs fee and using it for other things…abolished/tightened up etc
The politicians in power right now, keep telling us how much we owe and how dreadful it is we are not paying it back or whatever – forgetting that they got it all for free, with summer jobs easily got!
I have loan(s) – I don’t need to pay it back until I begin work but a few years ago gov’t was moaning about how mature folk (like me) were not paying back so with some difficulty I set up a weekly loan payment – very little $$ which may never get done but it seems to have helped me this time around 🙂
I do not need living allowance as I have other means, and I try not to buy expensive course related materials…
My one class starts this week, on Friday. I have to read two more pieces of literature but I’m going to be doing that on Thursday…
In Aus people acquire a debt for their study which is paid out of tax once they reach a particular level of income – about half of average weekly earnings I think. (For you nerds out there the median is below the average.)
Australian culture is impatient with verbiage (which I applaud) but also anti-intellectual in some ways – which can lead to a crassness that is deeply unattractive.
Australians admire hard work but this is usually seen in physical terms. Our popular heroes tend to be sports people. Our Olympic crammer provides free schooling and training to those accepted – and no this doesn’t apply to those gifted in physics, music, philosophy or other fields of endeavour – only sport.
Study is generally valued in vocational/financial terms – get a degree to get a better job. This is profoundly dumb: the reason degrees lead to better jobs was because not everyone had them, when everyone has them . . . (this wasn’t pointed out by the education industry for some reason). It really is that crass here – and this is promoted by the government! Some things if thought about too long can lead one to despair.
In general education here is becoming more expensive and of less value. The only thing keeping the uni’s and ‘colleges’ in business is credentialism. Hopefully this will soon come to an end and we can start education again.
Cathy,
I’m glad you’re able to go to the university without incurring an onerous debt.
Evan,
I agree–colleges have become credential factories. Since everyone is encouraged to go and because loans are easy to come by the colleges can raise their prices with impunity. It’s a lucrative business for them so they’re focusing on amenities to attract students and in many cases are pressuring the teachers to ease up on standards—if the kids are required to work too hard they will go elsewhere. Fortunately it’s getting so bad that something has to change. Although a few days ago I read one company required a college degree for an entry level job. The degree wasn’t required to do the job but there were so many applicants they had to have some way to weed some of them out. The whole thing is sick.