Essay On Geek Culture

The purpose of the study, A Psychological Exploration of Engagement in Geek Culture, was to identify and understand why people participate in geek culture. Geek culture is defined as a subculture of enthusiasts that are interested in “obscure” media such as anime, sci-fi, and videogames. However, there are many faucets of the culture and it has become increasingly appealing to mainstream audiences, causing a greater shift in active engagement. Despite geek interests once being marginalized, events such as Comic Con and movies such as The Avengers have achieved monumental success in the past decade. The researchers theorized that were a specific set of reasons why people choose to engage in geek culture, and to understand why geek culture is …show more content…
I can anecdotally attest to that, as I spend most of my days daydreaming of mystical situations. I will admit that my geek interests are a form of escapism for me, and that I really love being immersed in them. When I first read that they found support for high levels of narcissism in geeks, I immediately got defensive. It wasn’t until I read on to see that they were using the term in a clinical setting and not the immensely negatively defined term we use in day to day conversations. It makes sense, especially when it’s hard for people in the U.S. to achieve any other form of praise in their lives.
I would love to see further studies carried out on geek culture. There are many things we could take away from these studies, the most important being inclusivity. This study acknowledged that the majority of people surveyed were white males, and I believe that may skew results. As a queer Mexican-American male, I know for a fact that my geek experiences are not the same as a straight white male. Factoring in other key components such as gender, social economic standing, ethnicity, religion, etc. I believe studies could shed light on much