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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_for_Sad_Children
In some ways "outdated", too edgy, but in some details maybe even more relevant today than it originally was.
(1/3 of humanity having no electricity is a bit exaggerated, in 2000 it was 1/5.)
"nerds" please, say techbro. No one that's obsessed with computing is buying the thinnest macbook™. Nor are they incharge of making ot
this is wrong usage of nerd, it describes tech bros. the actual nerds have enough class conciousness to oppose consumptionism and capitalism
No true nerd fallacy
mrow :3
:3
This ignores the fact we live in a capitalistic hellscape which makes important tech jobs few and far between so they can continue to use us for war, invading privacy, spreading ads, and business software.
If I could take my skillset and walk into an organization that would use it to do good, and would pay a living wage, I'd do it tomorrow.
I can draw pictures, and play, or even make games on my own in bedroom.
I'm not going to solve the fucking energy crisis in my bedroom.
Oh yeah! Do drag queens next! They just got their 15 seconds of fame a decade ago too!
Drags are ruining the planet! Makeup just kills kids in the third world! And fast fashion! And those lights! On the mirrors and the stage! Girl! Global warming!
Buncha rich white men wasting their lives pretending! Wigs in the trash! Cigarettes! Wanting to make everyone werk themselves to death trying to slay everyone!
Wanting a SteamDeck isn't the same as being racist (since you brought it up). A lot of nerds like things outside of computers and phones. In fact, some of us are pretty resourceful and reusing older devices for less waste and more privacy.
Last year I gave away my Switch because I didn't play it as much as I used to. Same with my old phone and hard drive. So spare me the self-righteous bullshit.
Also your comic sucks and is too wordy. It's a comic draw better pictures.
It's not my comic, see the description, it's a decade old.
I mean you could probably draw better than whoever made this comic since it's barely anything, but still the message of the comic is making assumptions about nerds and calling us racist for being nerds.
The comic was pretty popular back in the day, the minimal empty style had its charm, and worked well with the themes.
I suspect the comic's notion of "nerd" is just outdated. Or off the mark. Either way, the actual criticisms don't apply to what we call nerds, but to something else, others have pointed out the better word would be tech bros.
PSA: tech bros and people who buy the lastest iphone are not nerds!
In fact nerds don't tend to care about fashion items as status symbols and if you buy an iPhone every year, you're very much doing it to show everyone your updated camera bump layout, as they last a long time in reality, much like modern Android flagships. And I doubt most nerds care about a 10% performance uplift enough to spend money every year. Money that could be funneled into expensive hobbies
yeah this is all i could think about reading it. The nerds are using older products, often saving them from going to a landfill. Theyre reading books. The person buying an iphone every year is the opposite of a nerd
Exactly! I collect cassettes, books, and boardgames, and 95% of the time they're thrifted; it's the same with my clothes and instruments.
I'm actually planning on reviving my old... i think it's an iPod Touch 5? It's not a very "good" device, but it'll serve well as a music player :3
tech bros are "nerds (derogatory)", geeks are "nerds (endearing)"
Yet another example where geeks overlap with but are very much distinct from nerds
Honestly, I'm not sure this counts as being a geek, either, but I'm a nerd; I have no qualifications to say one way or the other.
The "nerds" I know spend days getting an obscure ROM to work on a 6 year old phone they got for free from a relative instead of chasing the latest tech. Having the newest and slimmest phone is about fashion, not hacking.
Or reverse-engineering the LEGO Island source code.
Or emulating a Wii U gamepad on a Pi Zero.
Or porting applications to Windows 95.
I might have an obsession with a certain YouTuber.
The first half of this comic started to have a point, but kinda lost me as soon as the author started condemning the idea of having hobbies.
we've finally come full circle from "haha nerds are awkward losers!" through "actually nerds are fine" to "haha nerds are just straight up ontologically bad!"
The comic is from >10 years ago (ran 2007‐2014).
Some might claim it's more relevant today than it originally was
Here's the thing, I don't think the comic is Wrong. I tend to agree that consumption as an identity is fairly shallow and not particularly noble or beneficial to the enrichment of society or the individual.
However the comic falls short by only attacking one specific consumption hobby / identity. What about buying new trendy water bottles every season, or hobby dabbling, or movie buff, or social media scroller. Ultimately consumption as a whole is a pale reflection of production. Building, making, memeing, writing, exercise, photography, model building, Lego, Minecraft, Factorio. Helping others, volunteering, building relationships. These are the activities that enrich us and those around us.
This is why travel to sit in a hotel is fine and a little shallow and you'll have forgotten all about it in ten years. Travel and stay in a hostel and meet cool weird people in the common area and you'll remember them for the rest of your life.
Of course one can't produce all day every day. The person that only ever produces will burn out, and lose a sense of why they produce. Consumption and production should be balanced. I'm the first one to crash on the sofa and watch some Star Trek after a long day at the digital mines.
At least this is my philosophy.
I don't think work is production, hobby model building gives more production satisfaction.
Community labor gives satisfaction and benefits the community.
Productive labor gives satisfaction and benefits yourself.
Capitalist labor gives tokens instead of satisfaction and benefits the capitalist.
Under capitalist labor we consume using tokens to buy various forms of satisfaction, which turn hollow in our spirits leaving us hungry for more.
~Ranting MadWoman
This comic confuses the nerd, who has a 12 year old laptop with netbsd on it, a flipphone, and a PSP they use to emulate a game boy advance, with those cosplaying as one by buying the newest tech gadget as soon as it is out.
The techbros pushing the singulrity are not nerds either. It's unclear if Musk ever really read Iain Banks' culture novels he keeps referencing, but if he did, he 100% missed their point.
Right? Using the term 'nerd' in this context infuriates me
Joke's on them, I have an actual Game Boy Advance. Bud still works after all these years.
You should try a DS, the screen is usable for us old people 😁!
Wait, did you say Advance ? Best fucking handheld ever built 😍
I'm kind of repeating myself, but the comic is pretty old (before 2014), and I think the culture and words' meanings have shifted a bit in the meantime.
Then replace the word in an image editor? Or if it's this old try to refine it a bit?
It's not my work, I don't want to (and don't have much of a right to) meddle with it. If I even thought of updating it to my tastes, I'd do everything differently, far from changing just one word. Art can't be updated.
The interesting part is, to me, how a few details do seem not at all outdated, despite many others being grating.
I must admit, now I understand even more clearly why the author deleted all of her work off the internet...
No, i don't think so. That use of the word nerd was as out of place 15 years ago as it is today.
Source: I was a nerd 15 years ago too.
Shitty nihilism post, ugh. Gotta love people who are jerking themselves off for having an old iphone and a chromebook
It's also just missing the forest for the trees. Blaming the individual instead of the overaching problem of capitalistic consumerism, just so the comic author can feel a sort of superiority over others.
I don't own a single computer newer than 2013. I keep a stack of old hardware people who upgrade throw away to ensure I'll ALWAYS have a supply of old computers I'll keep out of landfill.
Normal people spent decades IGNORING the warnings of nerds and buying the bullshit of tech bros, and now the nerds who tried to warn them get blamed for this mess? Piss off.
The idea that the "nerd out" trend just turned into everyone sharing their favorite brands 🙂
I think people are being way too harsh on this comic. Yeah all of us are the kinda nerd to reuse and upcycle old tech and be a positive kind of nerd. Look at the site you are using guys, I think the nerd demographic might be skewed towards a certain kind here. It is also not saying all nerds, it mentions various ways nerds can be healthy and productive so clearly there are positive ways to be a nerd according to the author. And yeah it is focusing on the toxicity of nerd culture, which I think it is right about. There are nerds who are getting the brand new iphone, or the latest graphics card, or that new smarthome device. They are just a very specific but also very publicly facing and famous kind of nerd. For every Salem Techsperts, think of every Linus Tech Tips. Both are nerds, just different kinds of nerds, and unfortunately we are the minority.
If the comic doesnt describe you, then it isnt talking about you. Its talking about a certain kinda nerd. Should it use a more specific label like techbro? Yeah probably, but while thats true, I think we all also need to stop taking it so personally and recognize it aint talking about us. It is simply asking nerds not to be wasteful and to use our hobbies in a positive way. That is not a bad message.
If the comic doesnt describe you, then it isnt talking about you.
Unless you happen to draw cartoons or try to beat videogames quickly. Then it is talking about you.
I do find the reactions interesting, including the negative. The comics by this author were pretty popular, running from 2007 to 2014, but today they do strike an odd note in some regards (as I already anticipated in my description; perhaps that's why the author nuked her site). Techbro wasn't a term at the time yet, so 'nerd' it was. And I do have the impression nerdiness was more consumerist at the time...
Yeah while I'm sure there were plenty of nerds rocking old Thinkpads at the time too, I don't think the counterculture of resisting new tech hype was quite at the swell it is now. In 2010 fighting over Android vs iOS and whether the new HTC phone was gonna be an iPhone killer was a pretty big part of "nerd" culture. In some ways I'm not sure that's changed, other than perhaps the type of devices we lust over being different. (The Steam Deck is totally gonna kill Windows guys!)
If only the jocks or the theatre kids could accumulate all the capital, then our society would be saved!
^(Saudi Princes, PDiddy, Rupert Murdoch, etc)
ITT: people being offended because they think they're the target of the comic, when they aren't.
Elsewhere on Lemmy: Oh god I want a steam deck so bad, it's gonna be so awesome, I wanna suck Gabe's toes
People we call "AcidBurn" are the absolute worst.
Don't worry, I'm not talking about you.
I might not be the intended target, but it makes me furious that 'nerds' are being accused of this when so many of them (us!) are the ones rocking a decade-old computer and caring for freedom and privacy.
I mean, I'm the guy in the picture, but I'm not offended, I already know I'm terrible.