Please help me fill in these lists.
You're geeky if you're really into:
computers
Star Wars
You're not geeky if you're really into:
football
porn
You’re a nerd if you pursue your hobby in such a way that it excludes you from the rest of the world.
You’re a geek if you use your hobby to join a different world.
What if you’re into Star Wars-themed porn?
Jusk asking, is all.
Watching, nerd.
Performing live-action, geek.
I don’t think geekery has much to do with the area of interest so much as the extent of interest. For example, enjoying “Star Wars” doesn’t make you a geek. It makes you normal. The movies and toys didn’t make a bajillion dollars by appealing to a niche demographic. On the other hand, if you’re an adult with Star Wars-themed bed sheets and a Stormtrooper suit, then, yes, you’re definitely a Star-Wars-geek.
Playing video games was, at one time, geeky. But that hasn’t been true for well over a decade. Today most people play video games. Someone can still be a video-game-geek, but they aren’t one just because they occasionally play “Candy Crush”. Consider what it takes to be labeled a “film geek” (or “movie buff”, “cinemaphile”, etc.). Nearly everyone watches movies from time to time, but very few of them are film geeks. It’s not the act of watching films per se that makes one a geek; it’s the depth of devotion to the topic.
It’s definitely possible, in my opinion, to be a football-geek. Imagine someone who: knows damn near every player on every team; who runs multiple fantasy leagues; attends games regularly; does the body-paint and sign-holding thing at games; owns multiple jerseys. That person is a football-geek.
If you’re even thinking about it you’re a geek.
You’re a geek if you:
Bite the heads off small animals and/or are willing to eat anything for the entertainment of others.
You’re not a geek if you:
Don’t do the above.
Hey! I know that guy. I roomed with him for a while after high school.
Yeah, seems like you can geek anything, pretty much.
Cars. Anime. Football. Porn. Beer. Furries…
Not necessarily in that order.
Regarding football, I know dudes who can accurately quote obscure stats from before they were born with regularity.
“Dan Reeves had a 50 yd. TD pass in the Ice Bowl against Green Bay, y’know. It could happen here and it ain’t even that cold!” (actually heard this once, from someone waay too young to have seen that game)
Definitely a football geek.
So yeah, paraphrasing B/K - fanatical depth of knowledge of a topic and devotion to said topic defines geekiness to me.
Literalist. 
Star Wars is **the most famous and popular movie franchise in the history of the world. ** Being interested in something basically everyone likes strikes me as being the precise opposite of “geeky.”
“Geek” implies a degree of social exclusion from the mainstream. Star Wars is as mainstream as it gets. So are computers.
Geek implies a social awkwardness, whether it’s because you’re shy, just don’t ‘get it’, or simply aren’t interested.
Non-Geek implies a comfort with social situations, making friends easily, and being interested in doing so
(Seriously…everyone loves Star Wars. That should never be a geek-determinant. Now Firefly…that maybe. lol)
But this is just like the football example. Have you seen most or all of the Star Wars films? You’re normal. Have you watched the Clone Wars and the new rebels show? You’re a fan. Have you read most or all of the books in the extended universe (Legends, I think it’s called now) as well as kept up on the books and comics in the new canon? You’re a geek.
The difference is in, if you know what a Jedi is, who Darth Vader is, and recognize the quote “May the Force be with you,” then you’re just in there with pop culture. If you can go on a 20 minute spiel about the history of the old Republic, or you know the extensive backstory of some minor character, you’re a geek. I’ve known plenty of people that could literally sit around and talk Star Wars for HOURS.
Really, pretty much any topic has a level of mainstream understanding and then a rabbit hole reserved for the mega-fans and geeks and nerds. And I also don’t think that the words geek and nerd inherently include a degree of social awkwardness anymore. I hear plenty of people self-describe as nerds or geeks, but it’s usually attached to a particular topic. I rarely hear someone just described as a geek or nerd in general the way they would have been a couple decades ago. ISTM that if someone is socially awkward, they’re just socially awkward these days.
Any science or fantasy fiction.
Super heroes.
Reading books.
Video games.
Following a TV show.
Most any hobby that requires isolation from others.
Any activity that most would consider an example of arrested development or juvenile interests, e.g. watching cartoons, collecting toys, playing D&D, cosplaying, etc.
Posting on or browsing the internet for pleasure outside of work activities or daily living needs. I know there’s this idea that “everyone” is on the internet, but this is geeks trying to feel better about their own behavior. Non-geeks are way too busy having a life to waste time on the internet.
Porn is incredibly geeky. People can’t get laid, so they use porn as an escapist fantasy and masturbatory aid. Doesn’t get geekier than that.
Non-geeky things would be most other things you do with other normal people, but some particularly non-geeky things:
Hunting, fishing, camping, hiking
Lifting weights and working out
Playing sports
Partying
Going out with friends, bar hopping
Traveling
Starting a family
What you are saying is more like the people who say they ‘geek out’ on some particular thing (could be the ultra-Star Wars fanatic thing you mention). But I think having one thing you ‘geek out’ about is different than being a full-on geek. My husband was a full-on nerd when it came to his work. Unless he were in a room with others who shared his specialty, or something close to it, his discourse was way over most folks’ heads. But when you could divert him from his work, he was quite socially adept, not awkward at all. Some of his colleagues, however, didn’t share that ability to fit into the world outside their work. It was those folks that I would call geeks. Nothing derogatory in that term, either. I am rather fond of the geeks and nerds of this world.
Oops, sorry. I meant to include that this is in response to Blaster Master’s post.
You’re geeky if you’re really into:
This.
You’re not geeky if you’re really into:
That.
Thanks for the replies.
I certainly understand that the intensity of interest can separate a geek from a non-geek, but this is what prompted the question:
In a recent NYT article a woman wrote of visiting an SCA gathering and, of course, referred to the costumed, Middle-English-imitating participants as “geeks”. If she had gone to a pro football would she have called the jersey-wearing, face-painted, chanting fans as geeks? No. How about a religious revival?
Some fields of interest seem to be resistant to the label or have a much higher threshold for it. I’m trying to figure out if there’s a natural division between geeky and not.
I think the best way to tell if you’re geeky is to see if you’re a big fan of something obscure (in our culture in general, not just popular in a niche). You like Romeo and Juliet? Sorry, you’re not a geek, because everybody knows what it is, along with its basic plot, even though they’ll probably never bother to actually read the thing. You like To Love Ru? Congratulations, you’re a geek. (And a perverted one, at that.)
No. But they’re ripe for mocking, too, possibly even more so.
But clearly that has nothing to do with “Star Wars.” It’d be true if you were that far into anything. The specific subject matter at hand contributes 0 geek points.
If the subject matter you were way into was something that isn’t popular, that would contribute geek points. Someone who’s way into stamp collecting earns more geek points by virtue of that being a less popular (and declining in popularity) avenue of interest.
[QUOTE=BlasterMaster]
In a recent NYT article a woman wrote of visiting an SCA gathering and, of course, referred to the costumed, Middle-English-imitating participants as “geeks”. If she had gone to a pro football would she have called the jersey-wearing, face-painted, chanting fans as geeks? No. How about a religious revival?
[/QUOTE]
In the former case no, because professional sports is way more popular than SCA gatherings. People who aren’t even into football watch the Super Bowl; it’s just a really common thing, like knowing about Star Wars. Geekery is inversely proportional to the widespread popularity of something. That’s why being into comic books is far less geeky than it used to be. 30 years ago if you even knew who the X-Men were, knew a damn thing about Iron Man, or had heard the term “graphic novel,” you were the exception. Now comic book characters are so popular it’s getting quite tiresome and is beginning to crowd out more original art. Somewhere there’s a really good movie script that didn’t get filmed because they made another Fantastic 4 movie.
In the latter case, there are different pejoratives for people who are way too into religion.
If that’s the case, then why do Star Wars and Star Trek both have widely accepted “geek” fans (ST fans have a special word, even!) despite both being pretty popular?