We Are All Nerds Now

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."

Comments

actually

[SirSlud]

No, because pop gaming nerds think The Matrix was a good game, while real gaming nerds know that most of the world will miss out on gems like Viewtiful Joe.

Same goes for any of the other formats available. Trying to convince 'cool nerds' of the hidden treasures in each medium only make them easily identifyable as the uncool nerds again.

Nerds will always be around. They arn't identifiable by what mediums they like, only the great lengths they will go to discuss or aquire specific works.

Nerd/Dork/Geek Taxonomy

[theghost]

I am a nerd. I am also a dork and a geek. I think of these as three separate but related identities and have spent way too much of my free time developing discrete definitions of the three.

Nerds are defined by what they know. We tend to stick to societally acceptable topics, but dive in much deeper or cover a wider variety of subjects than most. We are the grad students of the world, the academics, researchers and general know-it-alls.

Dorks are defined by what they like. Similar to the nerd, we dive in much deeper than the average person, but the topics we pursue tend to be much more nontraditional. We learn to speak Klingon or Elvish or know the plot lines, writers, and artists of all the major comic books and most of the minor ones.

Geeks are defined by what they can do. We may not know as much as the nerd on any given topic, but we can do more with what we know. We can hook up a home theater, fix a computer, or super-charge a lawnmower. We are the tinkerers, programmers, and garage inventors.

Some broad examples of my taxonomy: Nerds get A's in AP classes. Dorks play D&D. Geeks set up LANs.

All of our incarnations have spent more time learning about stuff than we have interacting with other people, hence our reputation for social awkwardness. We are handy, interesting, and often downright annoying to have around when our specialty areas come up, but are otherwise generally avoided.

I'm a nerd/dork/geek, but that's not the entirety of my identity. I like myself and my life, and against all odds, I've managed to find a life partner who feels the same. Of course, she's a bit nerdy/dorky/geeky herself, but aren't we all?

Average Joe

[teamhasnoi]

Let me preface this with the statement: Reality TV is dumb, and I don't watch it. Thanks.

On to the point. I happened to be doing some computer/photo work over at my inlaws, where the reality show 'Average Joe' was on. It was the 'big, final, show', where the chick is picking between a rich nerd, and the sterotypical 'handsome guy'.

As I was in the same room as this, I witnessed the ending where the chick picks the 'handsome guy' (who actually lives in his parent's basement) over the rich nerd (who was not unattractive, but slightly goofy)

I had predicted that 'whoever was the biggest assole will be chosen' - the nerd seemed sensitive and not an asshole at all - but the money was throwing off the equation. 'Handsome guy' was actually more average from what I saw; by the definite lack of personality.

Somewhere I lost the point, but I haven't had enough coffee. Needless to say, the show left me with a sour feeeling.

The moral of the story: Rich nerds still don't get the girl, if they're competing against generic 'handsome guys'.

I'm married, but I'm stunningly handsome;) , and rich some of the time, and a nerd. I met my wife at a rock show I was playing, so go figure.

The Columbine Culture

[GPLDAN]

Here in Colorado, after Columbine - an interesting thing happened. Instead of reaching out to the geeky kids, and vilifying the jocks who oppressed them - the opposite happened. Adults went out of their way to demonstrate why jocks beating up geeks was the ACCEPTED reality, and it actually reinforced itself. The Columbine football team went on to win the local high School league, and all the major news outlets covered it like the Super Bowl. The jocks got endorsements, they were worshiped for their ability to "overcome" the tragedy, although it was quite clear they were the driving force behind Klebold and Harris behavior.

It was very strange. Colorado high schools have the very worst case of hating the smart kids, promoting mediocrity, and pumping jock culture. That is one reason I intend to leave before my kids become school age and move to a state that actually understand what a magnet school is, and what it is for.

Re:The Columbine Culture

[EvilTwinSkippy]

School has nothing to do with education. It is all about social conformity, brown nosing authority, and learning your place in the pecking order.

Everything I learned was by working a few chapters ahead of where the course stops and making up my own problems to solve between getting my ass kicked, harrased, and stuffed into lockers. (Didn't help that I was 4'8" and 90 lbs until my Junior Year.)

Let me tell you, there were times that I wanted to go postal. Truth be told the Jocks were very civil to me. My rage was directed at the insecure morons trying to climb to social ladder at my expense.

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[Saint Stephen]

Yeah, Micracleman (rocks). But what about Tales of the Beanworld? Or Cerberus the Pope, the comic you had to read with surgical gloves, or the oils in your fingers would stain the covers? Flaming Carrot? Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children? Concrete? Grendel? Stickboy: Fuck the World?

What's with the Judy Tenuda referenece? She was just some random comic from the 80s, before Pauly Shore was invented. She's not (particularly) geek-cool.

No Nerdism is still out there....

[Razzious]

Just because a little fantasy and sci-fi is popular, don't think for a minute nerds are accepted into society.

25 years ago we had STAR WARS, WILLOW, etc. THey were hits for Nerds and non-nerds alike.

And today you have the same crap going on.

I felt embarrassed for about 25 people at the Matrix Revolution that wore their black leather and sunglasses and walked around like some freak-show. How about the Star Wars fans that dress up and go about the foolishness. LOTR has theirs too.

NERDS ARE STILL OUT THERE AND STILL MOCKED. The problem so many of you have to learn to deal with is YOU ARE NOT THE NERD YOU THINK YOU ARE!

The days of a computer person = NERD is over, however the Nerd gene pool still exists and will still be mocked.

Comic Book Geek

[Fiver-]

I've got a Green Lantern cover as my desktop wallpaper at work, and one of our architects came by and saw it, and she said "Ooooh, Green Lantern! Bruce Lee was so cool in that."

"That was Green Hornet, not Green Lantern," I said with mock disdain.

Then she asked me what Green Lantern's origin was. Before I knew it, I had launched into a detailed explanation of Hal Jordan's beginnings. It was surreal. I've never said the words "Abin Sur", "power ring", or "Guardians of Oa" out loud before.

When the story was over we switched back to talking about our firm's marketing materials, but then I paused in mid-sentence and said "I can't believe I just told you Green Lantern's origin". It was so weird, because usually the geekness is kept pretty private. I don't have any like-minded people to talk about comics with. But now when I'm stoned with my girlfriend, I tell her to ask me about the origins of superheroes so I can go off on a long, rambling, tanget-laden story about the Flash(es), or Cyclops & Havok, or how Aquaman lost his hand, etc. It's a lot of fun, and it feels good to share. And my girlfriend is very amused.