With the increasing popularity of certain movies, books, video games, and other technologies, comes the increasing awareness of new groups of individuals who relate to each other by a common interest which they share. We see this with Apple iPhone owners, Android smartphone users and the like. We also see this with fans of movies and TV shows; i.e. Star Trek (Trekkies). With the increasing awareness of 3D printing, comes a new group of people who are keen on learning all they can about the futuristic technology, and while they like it or not, they may just be becoming part of a new sort of subculture. This subculture has not yet reached a point where others take a disliking towards it, such as what we see between iOS and Android users, nor have 3D printing fans earned a nickname quite yet, like Star Trek fans. However, we are beginning to see jokes, and memes start to emerge, as more and more people are beginning to fall into a “3D printing enthusiast, hobbyist, nerd” (or whatever else you would like to call them) category.
Image: Adafruit.com
One 3DPB forum member, curius aardvark, recently went ahead and created a comical, yet surprisingly accurate top 10 list of signs that point to an individual being an owner of a 3D printer. That list is as follow:
- Whenever anyone mentions something to you – your reply is: “I can make that!”
- Your house/workshop is overrun with little plastic models, doodads and fiddle widgets.
- Your friends see you coming and run before you give them another useless piece of plastic.
- Your Christmas gift list consists entirely of weird filament types.
- You only intend on giving gifts this year that you’ve actually ‘made’ yourself (for ‘made’ read mostly downloaded from Thingiverse)
- Even your anorack has 3D printed plastic toggles.
- You spend your life hoping household items will break, so you can make your own.
- You sincerely believe that you will invent and print something that will make you a fortune.
- You believe that self-replicating printers (rep-rap) is a real concept because you can make a few plastic parts. While ignoring the fact that you have to buy all the metal, motors, electronics and actual printheads.
- One day you hope to be able to print your own replacement body parts and become a truly self-made man.
Now our question to you is, “How many of these 10 statements do you fit into?”
- If you fit only between one and three of these statements, you are just a mere 3D printing enthusiast wannabe.
- If you fit between four and six of these statements, you are a 3D printing enthusiast amateur.
- If you fit between seven and nine of these statements, you are a 3D Printing Nerd. Congratulations!
- If you fit all ten of these statements, you are the Ultimate 3D Printing Nerd, and should probably think about taking it easy from slicers and extruders for a while.
Let us know where you fit in. Discuss in the 3DPB forum thread.