it's not, it's fashionable to PRETEND to be a geek (or what normals consider a geek to be). Actual geeks are just as shunned as they've always been

>>18671
Basically

It's a fad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7A5OgfP4NA&feature=plcp

This has been going on for quite a long time now. However, it mostly depends on the person that approaches you and what they think of you.

It's all retarded.

Hipsters ruin everything.

>>18671
How painfully true

In my school you were considered an outcast if you didn't play games and such. There were your typical hipsters, but you also had the COD OF DUTY GAYLO kids. I figure people are realising how boring SPORTS ON TV are. To be honest, dubbed anime was a huge thing in my school. There was even a "schoolwide" Hentaikey account IIRC. At least 40% of the underclassmen student body filed through the Anime club for two or three meetings. I introduced an attendance sign in sheet to prevent issues (there was a huge yaoi/doujinshi "black Market trading operation" issue that became an issue with the school administration).

And guess what. Nobody liked any of the stuff that is popular with actual otaku. Sailor Moon hentai was spoken about in hushed tones, but Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star were only passively even noted. And forget any of the latest seasons. It's amazing how American Anime culture is so fucking different than Akiba-kei otaku. They do have some similarities with Bukuro-kei though.

"being a nerd" is fashionable because of fashion technology, MySpace HTML Haruhis, "retro gaming[read: wearing Mario T-shirts]," and social networking. Truth be told, let them do it. Whatever. They can spend $500 at Newbury Comics and FYE. None of them apply any knowledge while dicking around on a $2000 fashion PC or endure insurmountable social agony and internal conflict even appreciating their own existence. To them it's just "yaay Big Bang Theory on Thursday night, watching dubbed Anime for Valentine's day with my 3DPD, posting on Reddit, wearing Salvation Army blazers with a Pikachu stressed graphic shirt, tapping on my iPhone, checking Kotaku to see if Madoka is getting a dub, buy a Creeper scarf for $40, and claiming I have been playing "LoZ" since the NES era."

Speaking of which, would you consider T.O.H.N.O. to be Akiba-kei?

>>18684
My circle of friends in hs were almost exactly like that. It was really kind of irritating. I set them straight, though. Introduced them to stuff like KnK, Evangelion and Lain and various VN's. That resulted in us convening at someone's house every Friday to watch whatever shows we were following together.

Now, because of college, we can't really do it anymore. Last series we watched communally was Fate/zero, after it ended. It was nice. I consider myself lucky to have friends like that...

>>18674
Haruhidamn, I can't stand that weak Internet Lecturer voice everyone has.

Tech is easy and portable enough to use allowing normals a tool to communicate with each other. You still need to have the right device and what not in order to be cool.

My mother wants an iPad. I asked her why "you only learned how to use a computer and a dvd player a few years ago", and she just said, "I just want one."
It is to keep up with her cool friends I can tell. How she doesn't see this is beyond me as she has taught high school for most of her life.

Being NEET and/or hikikomori is only cool on chans as a stupid meme by those that aren't.

>>18692
IPAD is pretty easy to use though. It doesn't require the dexterity built up from years of keyboard and mouse usage and layout is pretty simple.

>>18684
who made you the arbiter of otaku culture?

its very easy to call everyone else a hipster and assume they couldnt possibly have any genuine interest in the things they surround themselves with.

>I figure people are realising how boring SPORTS ON TV are

really man? really? I'm getting sick of this immature "everyone else is wrong" attitude.

>>18669
Those are fuckimg hipsters

>>18669
Also there was no real stigma to watching anime in my case (mainly black grammar school). And mixed high school. There were a few in grammar school - few anime people. But in high school there was a larger clique.

>>18697
Fuck off

>>18719
He's kind of right though. Actually, that kind of stuff is what makes me stop liking things I normally liked. Fighting games for one. I hardly even play them now, since I hate all the /v/ type scum and the nigger types that surround it.

>>18697
You know, it wasn't really that long ago when most sports were just something kids did for fun and adults didn't really partake in.
Maybe people actually are coming to realize they're just being peer pressured by society into liking sports?

>>18722
citation needed. how far are you going back?

>>18723
I suppose around the invention of commercial broadcasting, and radio broadcasting came to be in 1920 I believe.
The same year the NFL was founded.

Post edited on 22nd Nov 2012, 9:41pm

>>18728
People had sports hundreds of years ago; they were called jousting and archery, it wasnt mostly children. Not to mention the ancient Greeks and Romans: chariot racing, wrestling. Golf is hundreds of years old. Sports are a consistent thing throughout human history.

>>18729
yeah but who cares about countries other than the united states?

>>18729
Those sports didn't have nearly the same influence on the community around them that we see in ours. I'm no expert, but I doubt ancient Greek or Roman peasants devoted their lives to watching chariot racing or showed obsessive levels of loyalty to jousting or archery teams while allowing it to define who they were as a person while resenting their fellow man for devoting themselves to different archer.
and I doubt masses of citizens ever rioted becuase their favorite/local Golfer or wrestler lost a match.

It's not about the sports themselves, it's about the inpact and the hold they have on our society.

>>18732
you doubt the obsessive loyalty of chariot
racing fans?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot_racing

>Adopting the color of their favorite charioteers was a way fans showed their loyalty to that particular racer or faction.

>By 77 BC, the rivalry between the Red and the Whites was already developed, when a funeral for a Red driver involved a Red supporter throwing himself on the funeral pyre.

>The Blue-Green rivalry often erupted into gang warfare

>The factional violence was probably engaged in similarly to the violence of modern football or soccer fans.[78] The games themselves were the usual focus of the factional violence, even when it was taken to the streets.

Post edited on 23rd Nov 2012, 12:09am

>>18733
a rivalry between chariot races is pretty dumb. the blue chariot fans are total clowns, everyone knows this. theres nothing to argue about

>>18733
what the fuck?

>>18736
It's history's way of telling us that people are fucking retards. They've always been and they always will be.

>>18738
Yeah its funny to see that people are always.. people. There are stupid ones, smart ones, good ones, bad ones everywhere and at every time. I find it funny how there was graffiti found on the walls during Roman times about how so-and-so screws little boys or about so-and-so gladiator makes all the chicks wet. It shows how certain aspects of the human condition never change.

>>18697
Okay I'll actually make a real argument now.

>its very easy to call everyone else a hipster and assume they couldnt possibly have any genuine interest in the things they surround themselves with.

These people don't "surround themselves" like we do. They simply latch on to something that is popular with a set group, act like it's the biggest thing, reference it a lot (because Haruhi knows making references makes a person soooo funny!), but as soon as it's clear the game or whatever has run its course, they throw it out like a useless pile of garbage. They don't have an interest in the subject material in the least bit. They just care about the social merit to watching something or playing something.

Same with SPORTS ON TV. Sit most people down and they will tell you they find watching sports boring as all fuck. But it's a really great social tool for them. From a young age in schools, the "fun" of shitting on rivals and fitting into a gladiator-like group is appealing (I guess I am mentally ill for thinking of it as group-narcissistic fascism). Wearing a set colour scheme, talking about certain players, it's the ultimate "I fit in" scenario. And if you don't agree that the team is the greatest fucking thing in the world, you are ostracised from more than just the group. You're subhuman. Evil. Mentally disabled.

If you have ever been in New England on the monday after a Paytreets superbowl loss you know the pogrom-like attitude they have towards anyone who doesn't look like they are in mourning. Literally, my school excused a great deal of the students and staff on that day from duties because a team they have no part in affecting lost a Haruhidamn sports game. When you see that shit, it's no question that there is a shit ton of peer pressure into getting people to like it, to the point where so many people are Pavlov'd into it through social merits that they think they like the sport or the team, when in all sincerity they really don't care, and are not affected in the least by it if they just used common logic and did some soul searching.

So yes, I do have a negative attitude against those assholes, and I never said "everyone else is wrong".

You're just being a cunt.

>>18770
Its hard to define what a hipster is. Maybe its more of an attitude than a set of characteristics. But mostly these types of people are just 'into' it to look cool and those among them who genuinely like it are rare. Their whole social success is based off a sham.

Also where the hell did the obsessive with being hikkikomori/neet come from. I made a survey thread on uboachan and haf of the people there identified with either the hikkikomori archtype or batshit insane archetype. It seems like everyone has watched welcome to the nhk and its one of their favourites. Its a crap anime with crap production values. Manga and LN was much better. Also, having mental problems fucking sucks, its not cool.

>>18771
I never have seen hikki as a popular thing. NEET a little bit, but never "oh youre a hikomori ur soo cool"

As for mental illness. There is another thing that I remember a lot of people doing in adolescence. Pretending you have a disease (asthma, DID, etc) to get attention. There's a word for it. Perhaps that's what's happening with hikki appearing to be "cool"?

>>18770
>They simply latch on to something that is popular with a set group

can you honestly say you dont do the same thing?

>>18773
I always found the "fans" of things long after being into the thing. Sometimes seeing these fans made me not like the original thing. If I had it my way for a lot of the things I am into, I would never find a group, online or otherwise, who was also into it. Being in fan groups like that makes me feel like I'm buying into something and I hate that feeling. That's one of the reasons I hate disney; everyone born after 1987 in America can sing every animated disney musical song from heart (but me), and all I see is some sort of conditioned minds bought by corporations. I see human's basest weakness when I see things like that.

>>18771
>It seems like everyone has watched welcome to the nhk and its one of their favourites. Its a crap anime with crap production values.
Same can be said for eva and possibly lain, but people act like they're the best thing ever made and are what define someone as a true anime fan.

>>18776
I hate eva so much, I don't see why people think it's so great. But that's just my opinion. I never call it "crap," I appreciate the effort put into it, and I appreciate the expression. But I just don't like it. I don't blame anyone who does like it though.

>>18774
"The fanbase sucks, therefore it sucks"? get over it. The things you like do not define you.

I was born before 1987 and I know a lot of those songs as well. I'm fine with it. Whats your point? it only conditions our minds in the same sense that all media does. And if you hate Disney it still means they are controlling you.

>>18778
"You just like things because you can be in a group if you like them."

"Just because a group likes things doesn't mean you're justified in not liking them"

jesus

>>18773
Personally I check out things on occasion if they're popular becuase it might mean there's something good about it.
This season, everyone seems to love Chuunibyou but I had no interest in watching it. after about weeks into the show I finally said fuck it and tried checking it out to see what the big deal was, and I didn't really care for it. I don't really care if it's the popular thing all the cool kids around me are into, it's just not my bag, and this happens almost every season...
I like what I like, and I don't care if it's popular or not. I enjoy kids anime and don't expect anyone else to get in on it.
there are even things I completely hate that everyone and their mother loves, things that leave me feeling like I'm the only person on the planet that doesn't like them, but I still stick to my guns on it and I don't give one shit if it makes me a outcast, even in a place like this.

and yeah, I do think that even here people peer pressure each other into liking things, and people go with it just to fit in much of the time. I think sometimes being a individual means choosing to go with something even if it's popular. I have a ipod and use itunes, not becuase they're fashionable but becuase I tried the alternatives, winamp foobar ect, and I preferred itunes, that was a conscious decision on my part and guess what, I use windows! holy shit I must be a fucking normal fag right?!
I think forcing myself to use softwear, or anything just becuase people here don't think the alternative is cool, makes us guilty of the same bullshit we put down normals for.

>>18778
>"The fanbase sucks, therefore it sucks"? get over it. The things you like do not define you.

Not sure what part of the world you're from, but around here people kinda are defined by what they like. even back in middle school kids would define themselves with products. I commented once on how some kids were practically walking billboards, and they just made fun of me for not having clothing covered in advertisements. Here we don't live in a society were people get to know random to find out what kinda person they are, people here prefer to judge each other by their covers and becuase everyone knows this, people decorate their covers accordingly. it's a lot easier to make friends who have the same interests when they're easy to pick out of a crowd.

Further more, I think in many cases a fanbase actually can change how a person perceives something they like, their perspectives on the subject might shine a new light on it and make you see things in it you never knew were there. or they might force a change all on their own. for example, if there was a bar that I liked going to every day after work for years, and it got invaded by homosexuals who made it into a gaybar, I'd stop going there. Or if there was anime with really dark disturbing and sad themes, but it had a extremely large fan base who thought those things were actually funny, I'd probably be offended, and it would make me question if I was the one who viewed it the wrong way.

>>18781
>Not sure what part of the world you're from, but around here people kinda are defined by what they like. even back in middle school kids would define themselves with products.

Yes, middle schoolers are stupid. Also, many people do define themselves by what they like. You don't have to. However, sometimes, we may want to, as part of the appeal of media is identifying with aspects of it. But, this does not require you to identify with the fanbase. Even when an obnoxious fanbase is particularly vocal, I try to keep in mind that as long as I do not take part in that nonsense, simply liking the same things does not associate me with them.