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We Are All Nerds Now

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-get-beat-up-after-school dept.

Anonymous Slob Nerd. writes "The Guardian has a good review of something close to all of our hearts. We are all nerds now discusses how the popularity of the internet, video gaming, comic-book movies (Spider-Man, Hulk), the sci-fi epics (The Matrix, Star Wars) and the wizard fantasy (Harry Potter), not to mention The Lord of the Rings has made nerds, and nerdish behaviour, cool."

9 of 651 comments (clear)

  1. Popular, you mean by MarkusQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... has made nerds, and nerdish behaviour, cool." Uh, you mean it's made it popular.

    Nothing can make nerdish behaviour cool. That's one of the fundumental axioms of social psychology.

    -- MarkusQ

    P.S. If you doubt this distinction, spend a few minutes and I'll bet you can easily think of two other things that have allways been popular but have never been cool, and at least one thing (YMMV) that is cool but has never been popular. Do this when there is no one within earshot so you won't have to explain your laughter.

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. They'll let anybody into the club these days by webwench_72 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All this means is that there is more evident stratification in geekdom. Once upon a time, you were either a geek or you weren't. Now, there are levels of geeks. There are wannabe geeks, plain-old geeks, gamer geeks, alpha geeks, BOFHs, etc. Think of it as a multi-level geeking scheme. Geekdom with middle-management. A pecking order. In other words, associating yourself as a geek has become akin to associating yourself with any other group: gotta work your way up.

    --

  4. Lord of the Rings has nothing to do with Nerds by xphase · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Many people who were not nerds read Lord of the Rings in the 70's and even now. Even Led Zeppelin were big fans.

    --xPhase

    --
    The following sentence is TRUE. The previous sentence is FALSE.
  5. Remember the stereotype by alexhmit01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's more than the Guardian caught. Lok at the "classic" B-movies from the late 70s/early 80s, that featured the nerds, and the jocks/cheerleaders... In the post computer (and NASA, modern pharmacuticals, chemical advances, and the general explosion in engineering and technology) and wall street (80s greed is good, smart people making millions on wallstreet, etc.) and the cheesy comedies that were still appealing to the (now older) baby boomers feature 30 and 40 somethings.

    Al Bundy is the classic stereotype... High school athlete and popular kid, now sells shoes. How many movies can you remember from the 90s that had people going to their high school reunion, terrified of seeing their tormentors, and their tormentor jock/cheerleader classmates worked in dead end jobs and their cheerleader wives got fat and miserable. And our hero, the high school nerd, impresses everyone with their accomplishments in business, engineering, etc.

    The post-WW2 economy was about manufacturing jobs and the middle-class careers came from there.

    The Information age jobs stemmed from math, science, or general intellectual pursuits. Sure Jobs/Gates made billions with computers, but Wall Street traders made millions in the 80s, and those weren't the football washouts.

    There was a cultural change that followed the baby boomers aging. Manufacturing was replaced with the service sector, and the service sector is divided into minimum wage temps and high paid managers, with less and less middle management every year.

    The good looking and popular football player that excelled in the factory because he was worshipped is gone, and the stereotype is now that he works as an automechanic or car salesman. The geek is seen as a high paid engineer or a successful executive.

    That's been the see of change.

    Alex

  6. Re:nerds? by schon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We're geeks, dammit!

    Some of us are - what differentiates nerds and geeks is that geeks have social skills.

    For an example of the difference, watch Wargames - specifically the part where Matthew Broderick goes to the computer lab to get help from Jim and Malvin. Jim was a geek, Malvin was a nerd.

  7. Re:There's still something that separates us by Dr.+Bent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You forgot one:

    5) You have a platonic female friend

    You're desprately in love with your "friend" of 10 years, only she doesn't know it. It tears you up inside but you can rest assured that you will never, ever work up the balls to say anything. You will just continue to listen to her complaints about how her boyfriend is a jerk and how she can't seem to find "a nice guy like you".

  8. Exactly by pavon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Internet/Electronics:
    Just because us nerds made technology easy enough for the general population to use does not mean that the general population is nerds. Technology has always progressed and there have always been people who push technological development and those who simply use the results. When the general population can design these technologies then you can talk.

    Video Games:
    This has never been limited to nerds. When the nintendo came out, all the kids wanted one not just the nerds. I have a friend that works at a game store and he says the worst part about it is that half the people that come in are the stupid jocks with the "this game is cool cause you kill people" mentality. The only video gaming that have been specific to nerds are MUDs, and for that matter, pen-and-paper roll playing as well. So the popularity of MMRPG's is a step in that direction, although the potential for creativity is much less than MUDs and other role-playing games. Fantasy goes along the same lines. Everyone likes a good adventure, only geeks build entire worlds in their imagination.

    Comic Books:
    Again, in my dad's time, all the boys liked comic books. What makes you a comic book geek is knowing every single aspect of every single comic, to the point where you are more in touch with the comic book universe and more capable of spotting plot inconsistencies than the creator himself. Diddo for star wars, star trek. Plenty of non-geeks watch those shows. Only the geeks worshiped them :)

    The whole bit about how nerds are succesfull after high school has also always been true. And nerds are still treated the same way in high school as they have always been. The only change in that dynamic, which he barely mentioned, is the new goth, freak, punk groups that have grown staring around the late 70's. They tend to be more nerd-friendly than the popular people.

    But yeah nothing he said indicated any sort of signicicant change.

  9. Re:Rise up, my brethren! by kevmit · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Nope. Nerds are smart enough to only steal things of value.
    They're mimicking what they percieve our culture (or lack thereof) to be because we're the media's flavor of the week.
    Do you really think these nerd-wannabes are going to wannabe anymore once they realize that true nerds actually respect traits like intelligence and critical thinking? Or that real hackers don't really look like Neo or Trinity, or wear cool black trenchcoats filled with submachine guns.

    To appreciate and absorb our culture...they'd have to enjoy learning.

    To appreciate and absorb their culture...we'd need a head wound.
    (wow...that sounded kinda bitter, huh? Sorry, I need more caffeine.)
    BTW, I like your SIG. I've been flying stuntkites since the early 80's...nice to run into a fellow kiter. peace.