geeks welcome
Austin geeks out in new ranking of America's geekiest cities
Austin geeks, unite! The Capital City has been ranked the ninth-geekiest big city in the U.S.
In honor of Embrace Your Geekness Day (July 13), Lawn Love ranked the 200 largest cities in the U.S. to determine their geekiness level. It relied on factors such as number of stores selling comics and video games, number of geek Meetup groups, and number of costume shops to develop the ranking.
"Gather at Guzu Gallery to find collectible toys and pop culture art, or seek fellowship at Vigilante Gastropub and Games, where you can play on hand-built gaming tables while getting a bite to eat,” Lawn Love recommends to Austin geeks.
Other cities in Texas actually outdid Austin in terms of geekiness. San Antonio ranks fifth in the U.S., followed by Houston at No. 6. Two other Texas mega-cities appear in the top 50: Dallas at No. 21, and Fort Worth at No. 48.
Here’s how the rest of Texas’ big cities fared in the study:
- Plano, No. 58
- Irving, No. 60
- El Paso, No. 73
- Arlington, No. 76
- Lubbock, No. 87
- Killeen, No. 108
- Corpus Christi, No. 110
- McAllen, No. 121
- Denton, No. 127
- Midland, No. 148
- Garland, No. 162
- Frisco, No. 164
- Mesquite, No. 169
- Pasadena, No. 174
- Grand Prairie, No. 177
- Laredo, No. 181
- Brownsville, No. 186 (tie)
- McKinney, No. 186 (tie)
Now, you might be wondering what the difference is between a geek and a nerd. Although the terms often are used interchangeably these days, there technically is a difference, according to Rob Weiner, popular culture and humanities librarian at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
“A geek is one who is obsessed with collecting materials and following trends about their subject of interest, while a nerd is one who is educated and intellectual about a certain topic or subject area,” Weiner tells Lawn Love. “Nerds focus more on a wider breath of knowledge (and usually have a more technical or scientific knowledge base), while geeks focus on collecting and trends that go with pop culture.”