There is an interesting post that came to my attention today while checking my daily Google searches for topics related to the fantastic. The source for the post is in the WIRED blog “GeekDad.” The article is by Curtis Silver is titled “Is Being a Geek a Personality Trait or a Way of Life?”. In the piece Silver confesses that while he is a geek, his children do not share this status. Sadly, my own experience is similar, but with a few grandsons in the family, and possibly more in the future, I haven’t given up hope yet that I can create yet another family geek as it relates to the fantastic. Silver describes his early love for all things geeky in pop culture, and then moves to consideration of the source for such interests, whether this is the result of personality traits developed early in life or something else. After considering a couple of scientific and psychological studies which seem to indicate that childhood personality traits are locked in early in life, and then carried through into adulthood, Silver is not convinced that this best explains his geek obsessions. For him it’s something deeper:
You see, while being a geek may embody certain personality traits I don’t think it itself is a personality trait. I think it’s more of a way of life, or perhaps an encompassing state of being. There are plenty of environmental and social factors that can change how one perceives and interprets life. There are always paths for new interests, new roads into the convoluted and ADHD world of geekdom. So there is plenty of time for your budding geeklet to morph into his eventual place in the world of geek. There is also just as much time for that same geeklet to put the way of the geek behind him. No matter what, our support as parents will make them successful no matter which path they choose, no matter what piques their interests.
I am sympathetic to Silver’s perspective on this issue, but for me it’s a case of both/and rather than either/or. In my view, our exposure to certain things in childhood resonates with aspects of our personality, which is then carried over and adapts into adult life. When this is nurtured it becomes “a way of life” and “a state of being.” I throw the question to my readers. As a sci-fi/horror/fantasy geek, if you own such a moniker, is this a personality trait, a way of life, or both?
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The study does not make sense to me. For me, Geek just means having a great passion for something. All humans have passions and consuming interests. Some are Car Geeks, Sports Geek, Movie Geeks, Shopping Geeks and Sci-Fi Geeks. So is being a Geek a Personality Trait or Way of Life? It’s just being human and Fully Alive with passion. I think people love to stigmatize the Sci-Fi Geeks and put us under the microscope because it’s not as socially acceptable as the other Geeks.