"Geeks were considered less that nothing by society. The working world didn't trust them, believe in them or value them. They were basically rejected, as something annoying you had to have somewhere in your closet. My father actually told me in 2003 that he was disappointed I choose to work in such a boring field."
Exaggerating a bit? By a bit I mean a lot? I know that some geeks had hard childhood and were bullied, but way more others were not. Plenty of fathers were disappointed over children choosing various professions.
The way you people talk about it makes it sound as if all people who ever went into tech were bullied outcasts and that is simply not true.
At best you had an "ok" situation. Nothing like the "rock star" attitude you get today.
Not only geeks where the less popular in school, but the media mocked them. And this snowballed into the workplace where the only people threated like the IT department was the accounting one.
The pay was not nearly in the same area. Nobody would consider buying a dual screen for their IT dev a minimum requirement.
I can recall people dreading to call the sysadmin to deal with anything. Talking to them was considered a chore.
The best way to defend this is that before the ipod existed, noone would ever say "I'm such a geek". Today somebody playing too much on iphone would say that. We call girls with cute glasses "geeks".
"At best you had an "ok" situation. Nothing like the "rock star" attitude you get today."
Not being rock star is not an oppression. The ok treatment is what majority of people have. I mean, not being treated as something super special is not "considered less that nothing by society". It is being considered normal.
"And this snowballed into the workplace where the only people threated like the IT department was the accounting one."
There is nothing wrong with the accounting department. In pretty much all workplaces I have been at, they have been treated with respect. In any case, if that workplace treated accountants badly too, the workplace was shitty for more then one group.
"I can recall people dreading to call the sysadmin to deal with anything. Talking to them was considered a chore."
I have seen such behavior towards admin, but then again I did not liked talking with that particular admin either. I dont doubt that there were groups of great admins that were not treated fairly despite acting all polite and all that. Bad workplaces happen.
However, admin I considered chore to talk with was condescending too often and it was hard to get what I needed from him. He was good in tech, but talking with him was a chore.
"The best way to defend this is that before the ipod existed, noone would ever say "I'm such a geek"."
Yeah, I find everybody is a geek culture annoying too.
"We call girls with cute glasses "geeks"."
Guys with pretty much zero technical skills used to be called geeks just for liking a tv show or play videogame.
From my first job to my current one, I always made sure I was in good stead with the IT department (whatever its size) - it was where I could get cast-off hardware for my computer junk pile!
This is an interesting tidbit regarding pay. I have a feeling (no data) that the compensation for lots of professions mostly gravitate around some value that is connected to the perceived social status of said profession.
Supply and Demand often really doesn't factor in as much as it should. But maybe it's just because compensation in Germany is weird in general.
To be honest, the difference between geeks and nerds is so regional that it's hardly ever worth trying to explain the distinction. I always found it interesting that the difference between the two words could change so radically depending on where you are, considering most of the west got the same movies and TV shows.
Exaggerating a bit? By a bit I mean a lot? I know that some geeks had hard childhood and were bullied, but way more others were not. Plenty of fathers were disappointed over children choosing various professions.
The way you people talk about it makes it sound as if all people who ever went into tech were bullied outcasts and that is simply not true.