THE CICADAS ARE COMING!
1 2013-06-01T11:22:10-07:00 Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0 610 6 Hank Green dishes on the wonders of the cicadas. plain 2015-05-19T09:15:13-07:00 YouTube 2013-05-12T04:55:52.000Z video G34aBSrTkRE Tech scishow Ritesh Mehta f6bb7237e7d4a245c56fe5016bb295dc579e3d58This page has tags:
- 1 media/medialibrarythumbnailsscreenshot.jpg 2013-10-30T17:18:54-07:00 Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0 Confessional / direct address Diana Lee 17 Media Library Tag for Confessional / direct address structured_gallery 2015-03-09T00:43:24-07:00 Diana Lee 0c994d7f9dc5ee78dc93d8c823c300c060b9c890
- 1 2014-06-06T12:28:49-07:00 Sangita Shresthova 497a02d289c277275bc5ece441097deedf8135e7 Browse Media Library Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 15 Media Library tag for Browse Media Library structured_gallery 2015-12-07T11:13:12-08:00 Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0
- 1 media/medialibrarythumbnailsscreenshot.jpg 2013-10-30T17:40:34-07:00 Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0 Video Diana Lee 12 Media Library tag for Video structured_gallery 2015-02-05T01:48:35-08:00 Diana Lee 0c994d7f9dc5ee78dc93d8c823c300c060b9c890
- 1 media/medialibrarythumbnailsscreenshot.jpg 2013-10-30T16:50:55-07:00 Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0 Documentary Diana Lee 12 Media Library Tag for Documentary structured_gallery 2015-03-09T00:41:05-07:00 Diana Lee 0c994d7f9dc5ee78dc93d8c823c300c060b9c890
- 1 media/Knock Knock Def Jam Poetry.png 2014-06-06T13:43:21-07:00 Sangita Shresthova 497a02d289c277275bc5ece441097deedf8135e7 Media About Literacy, Education, and the Arts Diana Lee 9 Media Library tag for Literacy, Education, and the Arts structured_gallery 2015-01-26T21:09:09-08:00 Diana Lee 0c994d7f9dc5ee78dc93d8c823c300c060b9c890
This page is referenced by:
-
1
media/fictional_nerdfighters_by_solemnlyswear22.jpg
media/fictional_nerdfighters_by_solemnlyswear22.jpg
2013-06-01T11:26:06-07:00
Nerdfighters
36
Civic Network page for Nerdfighters
image_header
2016-09-07T21:20:07-07:00
About
The Nerdfighters are an online community of young people that coalesced around the YouTube channel of the “VlogBrothers,” John and Hank Green. John Green is a best-selling young adult author and Hank Green is a musician and entrepreneur, and both engage in a wide variety of online educational projects. Since 2007, the two brothers (inspired by video artist Ze Frank) have uploaded two to three videos a week to their YouTube vlog (video-blog) channel. Their topics range widely, from “How to make friends,” to “Revolution in Egypt: a 4-minute introduction.”
The name Nerdfighters refers to the predominantly young followers of the VlogBrothers. As the brothers’ YouTube vlog became increasingly popular, the brothers’ followers adopted the term to describe themselves, and the VlogBrothers since address many of their vlogs to Nerdfighters or “Nerdfighteria.” Over time, Nerdfighters came to exist as a community, coalescing mostly online, on YouTube, Tumblr or on Facebook group pages, but also face-to-face, in meet-ups of informal local groups. The Nerdfighter community has reached significant proportions—the average Vlogbrother video is viewed over 400,000 times. In the yearly “Nerdfighteria census” of 2014, conducted by the Vlogbrothers, over 100,000 Nerdfighters participated. The “barriers of entry” to Nerdfighteria are kept low. As the VlogBrothers quip: “Am I too young / old / fat / skinny / weird / cool / nerdy / handsome /tall / dead to be a Nerdfighter? No!! If you want to be a Nerdfighter, you are a Nerdfighter.”
Nerdfighters pursue a shared social agenda, which they loosely define as “decreasing world suck.” As the VlogBrothers enigmatically define, “World Suck is kind of exactly what World Suck sounds like. It’s hard to quantify exactly, but, you know, it’s like, the amount of suck in the world.” This broad definition leaves much space for individual Nerdfighters to interpret what “World Suck” (and decreasing it) means to them, from being a good person or cheering up a friend, to collective acts that fit within existing definitions of civic engagement, such as donating money to charity or volunteering. For example, Nerdfighters are very active on Kiva.org, a non-profit organization enabling individuals to make small loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. The Nerdfighters also support Project for Awesome (P4A), an annual event in which members are encouraged to create videos about their favorite charity and non-profit organization and simultaneously post those on YouTube. In the 2013 P4A, Nerdfighters uploaded hundreds of videos and donated impressive amounts of money to the “Foundation to Decrease World Suck” (a non-profit created by the VlogBrothers). Nerdfighters could then vote on which charities should receive the donation (see this list of total grants they gave out in past years).
See Neta Kligler-Vilenchik's By Any Media Necessary Chapter, Decreasing World Suck, to learn more about the Nerdfighters and other groups who employ fan activism.
Those interested in learning more about Nerdfighters and how to get involved may contact Valerie Barr at valerie@nerdfighteria.com.
Contributed by Neta Kligler-Vilenchik on 9/29/14
Nerdfighter Media
THE CICADAS ARE COMING!
Human Sexuality is Complicated
Crash Course US History #15: 19th Century Reforms