In a few years will kids refer disdainfully to ‘old geeks’, the way that people have talked about ‘old hippies’ since the 70s? What would be the distinguishing features of an old geek?
(Really this ought to be a short story, or a theme in a short story, but whatever.)
Beards?
One of the methods of determining the generational strata of British geekdom is to check who *their* Doctor Who is.
A lot of my friends are “Baker, Tom” and, while I did see some Bakers at transmission time (Logopolis) if I’m being honest – it’s Davidson.
“You kids today with your voice-activated this and implanted that! In my day, we had to program 6502 assembler code with a keyboard, and we were glad of it!”
Eventually anyone who still talks about “the Internet” will be branded a weird and hopeless old dotard, like someone today who uses the term “the electricity grid” or “the national highway system.”
They already do refer to people as “old geeks”.
As for distinguishing features… not sure. It’s people who understand the technology that the kids play with, while not understanding the kids themselves or how they choose to use the technology.
Which version of D&D you started with.
P1: “I started back on 1st edition.”
P2: “Yeah, back in my day Elf was a class, dabnabbit!”
P3: “Oh yeah, I started on a set of rules made up by this guy named Gary Gygax that lived nearby.”
P1: “Okay, you win.”
Allen’s got the meaning I intended–’old geeks’ as people whose lifestyle is (a) technology-dominated, and (b) based around a way of viewing/using/understanding the infoverse that has become irrelevant. I don’t think they exist yet, because when you say “old geek” you’re simply talking about someone who’s both old and a geek. It’s not a dismissive perjorative in the way that ‘old hippy’ is, because it’s still okay(ish) to be a geek.
I know young hippies who don’t know they’re hippies. Dreadlocked protest-rockin’ environmentalist stoners who will tell you they hate hippies worse than Cartman. They don’t listen to Jefferson Airplane, see, they listen to Ben Harper. Totally different.
Anyway, I reckon you’ll be able to spot the old geeks because they will still be calling themselves bloggers when the kids are chucking their lives and opinions onto the Internet by thinking about it.
You will automatically become an old geek in August. When your first child is born.
Get back in the kitchen, you.