The Nerd Generation

Our generation has been called a number of things: Millennials, Generation Y, the "Me" Generation.  But honestly, none of those terms really capture who we are as a generation, do they?  If the Millennials could be personified as a individual and contrasted with previous generations, who would that person be?  

In my opinion: a nerd.  

Being a nerd has never been SO cool.  Almost all the big blockbuster movies these days are comic book adaptations, sci-fi, and fantasy.  Who can count the number of Marvel and DC comic book movies that have come out in the past few years?  They've revived the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises (with huge financial success), and Peter Jackson took The Lord of the Rings and turned it from a rather esoteric, cult-hit series of fantasy books, and made them into some of the highest-grossing, most epic films of all time.  Not to mention Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, the Matrix, Avatar, The Hobbit, Ender's Game and most of the Pixar/Dreamworks movies.  Even mainstream, teen romances are moving more and more into the sci-fi/fantasy realm.  Twilight, anyone?  I think most of Twilight's fan-base would not consider themselves to be nerds, and yet they worship characters and a story that exist in what would normally be considered a nerd/geek universe.  It combines things geeks love (vampires, super-powers) with things that teenage girls love (romance and sparkles!).  The other day my friend saw a section in the Barnes and Noble labeled "Paranormal Teen Romance."  Things are definitely changing. 

Also, need I mention that it was my generation that made anime popular in the West?  What young person these days doesn't at least know the name Miyazaki?  Over the course of my lifetime, I have seen the birth of the Anime & Manga section in bookstores--not only that, but literally every time I go back to Barnes & Noble I swear that section gets bigger.  My generation grew up watching Transformers and Power Rangers, and when we got older we were delighted to discover a wealth of awesome anime-mecha series to geek out over, in addition to all those adorably kooky, bizarre anime romances, and intense, surreal dramas, thrillers, and horror flicks.  
 

 East to West - Japan's influence on the Nerd Generation

(clockwise from top left: The Power Rangers, Evangelion, Pacific Rim)







To catch up with this frenzy of nerdom, conventions and groups have been springing up all over the country where people who love these things can meet, mingle, and just generally geek out.  Comic-Con is one of the most famous, with annual conventions popping up in cities all over the US, and in other countries as well.  San Diego was the first city to kick off its annual Comic-Con in 1970, followed by Chicago in 1976--but the Comic-Cons really took off during our youth when Pittsburgh, Detroit (1994), New York (1996) and ten other cities (in the 2000's) started their own annual Comic-Cons.  The biggest anime conventions in the US are Anime Expo (first held in 1992), Otakon (1994), Anime Central (1998), and many more have proliferated since then.  The nerd wave may have really started with Generation X, but Generation Y has carried it on with gusto and made it their own.  

New York Comic Con

Need I also add that there are now countless comedy troups, singers, bands, indie film-makers, artists, and even bars and clubs that all specialize in geek-stuff.  Not to mention youtube sensations like the Vlog Brothers, Geek and Sundry, and PBS's Idea Channel, and more geeky webcomics than you could count. 

Of course, the people who go to conventions and immerse themselves in this stuff are still a small minority of the population. 

Rules of Engagement: Talking with Introverts & Extroverts

People seem to feel a need for better understanding between introverts and extroverts these days.  Why else would there be such a proliferation on the internet of introvert vs. extrovert cartoons, comparison charts, and guides like "How to Care for Introverts," "10 Myths About Introverts," "How to Piss Off Introverts" etc.   Not to mention a number of books on the same topic.  (Side note: I can't help but notice the extreme emphasis on introverts as opposed to extroverts in most of these, but that's a topic for another time).   For the moment, I simply want to join this discussion by talking about some key differences I've noticed between the way an extrovert tends to conduct a conversation versus the way an introvert tends to do it. 

When it comes to group conversation, introverts and extroverts seem to operate based on two different sets of assumptions--or we could even say different rules of etiquette.  I notice this difference more with young people (i.e. teens and twenty-somethings), and I especially see it in situations where there is either one introvert among extroverts or vice versa.  As an introvert myself, I've experienced these things a number of times.  I might be generalizing too much--maybe I'm focusing too much on shy introverts vs. extreme extroverts, or maybe there's something else more specific going on--but I've seen these things happen with other people as well, and I've seen it enough times that I'm willing to go out on a limb and say it's a general introvert vs. extrovert thing.  However, I am really curious to know if other people see the same thing, something completely different, or if you just have a different interpretation of these behaviors.  Please leave a comment and give me your two cents! 

So here we go:

Introverts are more likely to wait for a clear opening or look for a kind of "invitation" from the other people before entering a conversation.  By invitation I really just mean that they look for some kind of acknowledgement of their presence, either with a glance, a gesture, a greeting, or a question from the other people present.  This is especially true when the introvert is approaching a conversation that is already under way, and it's doubly true when the conversation in progress is fast-paced or intense.  

Extroverts, on the other hand, tend to assume that if you want to join the conversation, you'll just do it, without waiting for a cue from anyone else.  Extroverts aren't as prone to waiting and reading other people before speaking--they just dive right in, and they expect the responses from other people to be just as quick and spontaneous.