When did computers and technology stop being geeky?

[Summogonny]

When I was growing up, the 80s, computers and technology was the realm of the geeks and nerds. At what point did technology become cool and what was the reason for the shift from geekdom to mainstream?

 

[Smith6612]

It's still Geeky today, you just need to get into a higher level of knowledge in order for it to be geeky. Otherwise, it stopped being geeky and "cool" when PCs really became mainstream and people started to have some what of a knowledge of them. Basically, around the time Windows ME/2000/XP came about.

Video gaming has hit the same way. Still great games being made to this day, however the days where being a gamer was something that was awe-inspiring and "underground" to everyone are over with. Gaming "LAN" Centers are shutting down, ISPs are overselling their networks and messing up routing, and games are becoming far more mainstream, as well as PC gaming kind of hitting a demise due to consoles but still going very strong. Gaming was considered underground especially if you played a LAN-based game such as a Shooter before 2004-2006, somewhere in that time line and you also owned a high end PC.

But to answer your question completely, it's due to people wanting to use them to try and help them do things more. This is the case of computers, especially now that the Internet has grown massively and everyone pretty much uses it. Gaming? It's the same way. More people are picking it up as hardware (even budget hardware) starts to speed up and being seen as "cheaper" for the power, and they wish to utilize it as an entertainment method.

 

[mattblog]

Like I would say technology has gone from a wide range of just computers to phones, tv"s, gaming consoles and around 50% of the items we use daily. It used to be just coding too when it wasn't so user friendly. You had to use punch cards and know coding to run a computer, therefore only people who really wanted to leanr or felt they needed to learn were known as the geeks.

 

[farscapeone]

I thinks it's because technology is now build for everybody. You don't have to know much to use iPad right. Evey other dumba** can use it. That's why it's so cool now.

Back in the days you would have to have a good amount of knowledge just to make you computer beep so you had to be a geek to do that.

 

[krofunk]

to put a date on it...late 90's.

win9x made computers accessible to the common man

 

[adifex]

The ability of the general public to use computers has not un-geekified computers; rather, the computer geeks of today have hoodwinked everyone else into using their extremely complex creations of hardware and software through simple, dumbed-down interfaces. To the casual observer, computers have become the standard domain of the ordinary human. But in reality, the geeks, being the only ones who can speak to the machines, have enslaved all of humanity to their will- not unlike the Matrix.

Think twice the next time you play Tetris.

 

[justin.scherer14]

It has become the way of all technology. Only the "geeks" first used the telephone. Only the "geeks" or crazies flew airplanes in the beginning. Once something is made that the everyday user can use it then it becomes mainstream. And this is honestly what was going to happen and needed to happen. To me, there is no point on having something that is only for the geeks and nerds. The better understanding that everyone has of something, the better.

On the other hand, computers can still be seen as geeky and nerdy. Building your own computer is seen as geeky. Programming is seen as geeky. Heck, even building your own website from scratch can be seen as geeky. There is still many things that are geeky in the computing world, it just has changed from the late 80s.

Also, if you want to see something that could be considered geeky is Linux. Yes, there are some distributions that are made for everyone but there are those that are not. Gentoo is one of these systems. You have to build everything from scratch from the command line. Again, this is seen as geeky. Though, this is also something I am trying to get away from. I am creating a website that will help people learn Linux and see it not as a geeky toy or something along those lines but as a useful tool that we can all use.

Overall computers are not seen as geek toys anymore because the everyday user can use them. But, there are still many things that are geeky with computers. So the geekiness has not moved away from computers but has just changed focus. I really hoped this helped.

 

[bhupendra2895]

Computers have changed our lifestyle.I feel that difference between 80s and now is that in 80s computers weren't cost effective, so they couldn't be implemented for mainstream purposes.Thanks to improvement in hardwares and softwares as well, computers are not only cost effective but also they are easy to use.Initially computers were used in government sector and private companies.This resulted in inclusion of computer subjects in the syllabus of schools and colleges and hence they are in our pocket now.In present scenario geekness depends on which type of computer we use and how we use it.For example if it is a terminal in railway station used to query train status then there is not too much to explore but if it is a personal computer then there are unlimited fields where geeks can explore.

 

[meskarune]

I used to play the original warcraft (a dos game) over lan and through IP address dailing

(back in 1995 you had to use phone lines, long distance costs extra so people mostly interacted with people in their town. To play multiplayer games you had to call your friend, ask for their ip address, call their computer, they would have to accept the call, and then the computers were connected)

I'm old

LOL

Playing computer games used to have the same nerdyness associated with it that playing pen and paper RGP's have now.

Does anyone here remember dialing into a BBS with telnet? Anyone know what a MUD is? Computers have come such a long way...

 

[Summogonny]

Thanks for comments ..

Bactium

 

[kefka_asylum]

I used to play the original warcraft (a dos game) over lan and through IP address dailing

(back in 1995 you had to use phone lines, long distance costs extra so people mostly interacted with people in their town. To play multiplayer games you had to call your friend, ask for their ip address, call their computer, they would have to accept the call, and then the computers were connected)

I'm old

LOL

Playing computer games used to have the same nerdyness associated with it that playing pen and paper RGP's have now.

Does anyone here remember dialing into a BBS with telnet? Anyone know what a MUD is? Computers have come such a long way...

yep BBS to play LORDS or to download new patches or software
my 2400 baud was badass when i learned to program the init string
back up a bit to the 14.4 we'd play phone games with the dialup
DWANGO was the best and worst, getting green slimed for talking out of place
or not paying your dues...
MUD? MUD? i never played a mud until 2000 when everyone had broadband
however i still play the same mud to this day!!!
why mud? because the interaction and complexity is far more enjoyable than eye candy!!


What is being computer geek these days?
Reciting from memory to a newbie the windows registry locations for 20 different common errors or "fixes"
knowing how fast your ddr3 bandwidth is compared to ddr3200
having a fresh install of the lastest software running live on your second test computer
then connecting to it remotely from the office or from home to the office to prove it all works
VNC
being able to display the closest 100 radio antenna towers in a 4 mile radius from wherever in the united states
and then having audacity enough to do research on the frequency band and manufacturer of the tower

being geek means being a technical person
speculating about the meaning of life through the optics of an LED in the 620nm wavelength

generally, being a geek means having a scientific and technical background with interest, wit, and sarcasm to critize the industry you love to hate while adopting all the rage and shooting down all the hype

because... the dude sitting there watching tv thinks the universe comes in a pixellated box
while you are realizing the world exists beyond the frontier of america

---------- Post added at 10:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 PM ----------

logistics of manufacturing isnt often spoken of
the 18 month gap between new technology is often overlooked when it comes out
10 years ago a single core processor was the best forseeable future
now we can only speculate about 12 cores and 20nm wafer chips

the designers and makers of our technological geekiness are profiting and escalating society to a new era
while the naysayers constantly think we are becomming more dependant of electrical pathways that bind the world

when i was a kid the WWW had 10 websites
when i wrote my first website in 1997 the internet was barely 1,000,000 websites dense

i remember a 486 pc complete from the manufacturer costs nearly $3000
cellphones were large clunky and extremely expensive, upwards to $6000

why are more people imbedded in technology today?
price and logistics, everyone has one, so do you

what are geeks?
people that know more about the inner workings of technology than the persons who use them

 

[demonic_assassin_91]

my opinion is computers became mainstream when it was no longer just for the minority, large marketing campaigns and increasing capabilities appealed more to the larger masses, and anything that reaches the hands of societal role models becomes popular to the majority 90% of the time, but as far as programming and more of the more advanced practices in computer systems, its still considered the realm of us geeks ^^.

 

[Sharky]

And was also when the home computer became a box of mystery instead of components. Average Joe gets around but doesn't understand electrons so is happy to buy a machine with 'a 3 gig memory' (WTF?!) so long as it does facebook and Internet explored, and that thing that puts a dancing girl on your desktop.