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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."
If the "Nerd" moniker is now the baseline for the general populace then the True Nerds will have to come up with something to differentiate us from Them. Maybe it's time to go back to black glasses with tape, flood pants and pocket protectors. Perhaps a secret handshake too!
Trolling is a art,
What is the default level on the geek hierarchy that the new trendy nerds enter at?
And the nerds that will be looked down on are the ones who still like Star Trek.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
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.
"Old man yells at systemd"
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I think it was the .com bubble, the millions of dollars and the fancy cars that did that.
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.
Where the hell is my hot cheerleader girlfriend?? And where are the disgruntled upended jocks?!
;-)
Sheesh... you all can be "nerds"... I'm happy being "geek".
I-P (Its geordi laforge... as a smiley!)
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
--xPhase
The following sentence is TRUE. The previous sentence is FALSE.
Great...now no one will get laid.
I joined the New Enterprise Regarding Destroying Sociability (NERDS) specifically to avoid the masses. Nerd stuff was sure to keep 99% of the population away. Now what? I don't want to join the cannibal cult, I'm not interested in trepanation. What do I do?
geeks are. Nerds are just geek wannabees. One is born into nerdness, but it takes an effort to become a geek.
While we might be consuming the same media, there are still some things that distinguish a true nerd:
1)Superiority complex
Don't worry, you're still smarter than everyone. You knew about Spider-Man back when it was a crappy 80's cartoon!
2)Poor hygiene
"I don't want to waste my time primping and preening," says the nerd. "It's societal bullshit!" You're like Rosa Parks, except the bus is the underwear you've been wearing for the last 3 days. Keep it up, faithful nerd...you shall overcome!
3)Passive aggressiveness
You'd rather take crap from your boss and call him a "PHB" on some internet message board than to straighten him out once and for all! Instead of suggesting your own methods of getting work done, you sulk and try to invent ways to sabotage his ideas.
4)Fanatical Collecting!
You can't relate to most people, but things...things are easy. Whether it's Battlefield Earth action figures or indie rock 12 inches, don't kid yourself-you're still a fucking nerd.
And the rest of us will be waiting patiently for you outside the boy's bathroom, ready to deal out the wedgies, score with the ladies, or become transparently evil characters in your 800-page self published web fanfic about Dracula meeting the Ninja Turtles. Rest easy, nerds. Your position in history is safe.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
it's not really a secret and it's called 'masturbation'
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
You musta missed that meeting: Reading is uncool, therefore reading is nerdy. Reading enough to stick through 250 pages of appendix doubly so.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
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.
My favorite nerds were the pink and purple ones. Mmm nerds.
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?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
now if only they'd make being fat and addicted to caffeine cool i'd be james dean!
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.
Some broad examples of my taxonomy: Nerds get A's in AP classes. Dorks play D&D. Geeks set up LANs
all these year's I've been calling myself a geek, when now I finally realize I'm a dork. That's both scary and depressing. We'll at least all the money I spent on Magic cards wasn't in vain.
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.
It was always said that the geeks shall inherit the earth!!! Or did I hear it wrong?
To me, a geek is someone who is more than a little obsessed with certain subjects and are usually more than proficient in their chosen areas. There can be car geeks (guilty), movie geeks, computer geeks, etc. Geeks can be socially awkward or life of the party but they have some depth to them.
Nerds, on the other hand, don't have to be particularly good at anything and they are totally obnoxious. Script kiddies come to mind here as well as the ricer with the hideous car (multiple wings, twin fart cans, plaid, dayglow paint job, etc.).
Am proud to call myself a geek. Call me a nerd and you're going down.
I drank what? -- Socrates
i think douglas coupland said something along these lines...
Q: whats the difference between a geek and a nerd?
A: The geek is employable.
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.
We already have that something to differentiate Us from Them. It's called virginity.
Do we also get to bang the cheerleaders?
! the cheerleaders
ducks
I'd have to say that you have it completely ass backwards. Probably because you want to define yourself as a geek without feeling bad about it.
Both geeks and nerds are obsessive, but about different subjects. Geeks are obsessed with liberal arts topics, like films, books and other media. Nerds are obsessed with more technical concerns, such as science, math, and computers. There's a lot of crossover.
The obnoxious factor has nothing to do with being a geek or a nerd. Either can be quite cool...for example, Henry Rollins is a major geek, and Steve Jobs is a big nerd. Somebody who's obsessed with something to the point of obnoxiousness is a DORK. And you have to admit, there are dorks in all walks of like, not just geeky or nerdy fields. I've met dorky religious folks, dorky jocks, and plenty of dorky musicians.
Dorks like to refer to themselves as geeks because it's not cool to be obnoxious. You know, unless you're a stand up comic or a republican.
Hey freaks: now you're ju