On geek chic and bloggers being freaks

Was thinking about this stereotype that bloggers are freaks. [Thanks for the birthday shout out Annie]

I still meet the odd marketer who hopes bloggers/online communities will make their campaign go viral for them and give them lots of free publicity while still sneering that it’s because “they’re freaks” and “have nothing better to do” and still question why these people would want to broadcast stuff about themselves.

I first discussed this on my previous post about being Too Shy To Share and I’ve since seen on my travels there’s been some research on virtual shyness vs. IRL shyness. Leila got it straight off in the comments of that post… We just broadcast stuff about ourselves in different ways we feel comfortable.
Fashion is a great example of this. It can broadcast a whole pile of non-verbal messages: I’m rich, I’m extrovert, I’m a rebel, I support a football team, I like Death Metal music etc.

Clothing manufacturers have harnessed the ability to transmit visual clues about ourselves through what we’re wearing. The fashion industry is entirely reliant on a few key people walking around looking a certain way or carrying a certain item for the viral effect – items that some of us wouldn’t be caught dead with because we don’t want to broadcast “I have the same handbag as Lindsay Lohan” to the world.

I would never dream of wearing a t-shirt of a band I like. I don’t know why. It’s not that I don’t believe in telling people I like a band. I’d happily join a Facebook group, or tell people on Twitter that I love them, I just don’t like the idea of walking around as a billboard. Yep, that would make me feel like I was broadcasting publicy. Funny, huh?