Are 'geek' and 'nerd' now positive terms? - BBC News

This is the question that Kathryn Westcott is pondering over at the BBC news website.

This question has come up a few times in various places and rather than give a concrete answer it mostly just leads to flame wars and posturing. Many a social group seeks to define itself but who they exclude rather than include and there is the eternal example of something being abandoned by one group when it becomes too 'mainstream'.

Picture from here

This is as relevant in the world of film as it is in other areas of the media, especially with the rise in comic book adaptations and the like. Everyone wants to retain 'ownership' of the works they love and there is a pervading idea that mass consumption somehow ruins it. This is of course nothing new but film and television are mass media with clear emphasis on the "mass". It reaches wider audiences than other mediums and now with the digital age we have access to far more content than we would previous and that in turn shapes that direction culture takes. It's a continuous loop.

For my part, as the girl who was voted second geekiest in the year in my sixth form year book, I not sure my knowledge of the things I'm passionate about is extensive enough to gain me geek status and in any case owning to the fluidity of the language in this case, its meaning is adaptable depending on the speaker.