Do you consider yourself a nerd?

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So we all grow up fully aware of the stigma of being a geek or a nerd or whatever, but as we age I guess it lessens a little, or at least we learn to accept ourselves. Do you think there comes a point where you must just say "Yes I am a nerd", based on the evidence at hand? And just accept it and learn to live with it?

Are you a nerd?

A friend of mine who I hang out with a bit lately will often look at me after I say something and affectionately go "oh you're such a nerd Ronan", but instead of being insulted or making excuses as I might have in the past I think it's nice to actually just go "yes, I know! I really am". On the other hand maybe it's defeatist to think of oneself as a nerd.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:38 (twenty years ago)

4000 nerd answers by evening.

― jushinthunderliger (deangulberry), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:41 (twenty years ago)

nah, not a nerd. Not quite smart enough.

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:42 (twenty years ago)

Ditto.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:42 (twenty years ago)

perhaps, maybe a GEEK? does geek suggest obsessive compulsive attitudes to hobbies more than nerd?

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:43 (twenty years ago)

Aren't nerds and geeks the same thing?

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:43 (twenty years ago)

geek suggests knowledge specific to a subject i think. nerd is more of a social thing. to me anyway.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:44 (twenty years ago)

yeah that sounds about right

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:45 (twenty years ago)

xxpost

Nerds are more like totally socially inept geniuses. Geeks are like, computer geeks or record geeks. People with interests so highly specialized that no one cares but other geeks.

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:45 (twenty years ago)

I wasn't ever not a nerd?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:46 (twenty years ago)

I would rather be a nerd that a guy who bites heads off live chickens at the carnival. Where does the term nerdcome from anyway? (calling anyone with an OED!)

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:46 (twenty years ago)

"People with interests so highly specialized that no one cares but other geeks."
Sounds like someone I know. No, it's not me.

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:46 (twenty years ago)

Which is probably why I don't think of myself as a nerd (anymore), because I haven't felt socially ostracized since high school. (I'm not counting the Noise Board, haha.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:46 (twenty years ago)

I consider myself a dork, which isn't as cool as a nerd or a geek.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:47 (twenty years ago)

dude, don't you know that if you aint noize, you aint shit?

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:47 (twenty years ago)

Geeks, nerds, dorks - the same thing.

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Gorks?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm a dork, too.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

I consider myself a dork, which isn't as cool as a nerd or a geek.

Me too, I'm not even cool enough for nerd status.

― Leon the Fratboy (Ex Leon), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but geeks drive like THIS.

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

i'm probably a nerd because i often prefer doing homework to going to parties and i can't talk to boys.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

The word nerd, undefined but illustrated, first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo: “And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” (The nerd is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry, like a thin, cross Chester A. Arthur.) Nerd next appears, with a gloss, in the February 10, 1957, issue of the Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday Mail in a regular column entitled “ABC for SQUARES”: “Nerd -- a square, any explanation needed?” Many of the terms defined in this “ABC” are unmistakable Americanisms, such as hep, ick, and jazzy, as is the gloss “square,” the current meaning of nerd. The third appearance of nerd in print is back in the United States in 1970 in Current Slang: “Nurd [sic], someone with objectionable habits or traits.... An uninteresting person, a ‘dud.’” Authorities disagree on whether the two nerds -- Dr. Seuss's small creature and the teenage slang term in the Glasgow Sunday Mail -- are the same word. Some experts claim there is no semantic connection and the identity of the words is fortuitous. Others maintain that Dr. Seuss is the true originator of nerd and that the word nerd (“comically unpleasant creature”) was picked up by the five- and six-year-olds of 1950 and passed on to their older siblings, who by 1957, as teenagers, had restricted and specified the meaning to the most comically obnoxious creature of their own class, a “square.”

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

geeks bite heads off chickens, so there's a bit off sideshow to them.
geek = nerd + freak

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

i also spend an unhealthy amount of time in the library, or thinking about the library.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

http://cache.lego.com/images/shop/prod/4483-0000-XX-33-1.jpg

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

Let your freak flag fly.

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:51 (twenty years ago)

Jaymc, that was such a nerdy thing to do.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:53 (twenty years ago)

Jocelyn asked for it!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:56 (twenty years ago)

the google image search for nerd is surprisingly dirty. Who knew?

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:58 (twenty years ago)

i'm probably a nerd because i often prefer doing homework to going to parties and i can't talk to boys.

caitlin, I don't mean to alarm you, but you're talking to boys RIGHT NOW!

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:58 (twenty years ago)

I'M NOT TALKING TO BOYS I'M TALKING TO THE INTERNET.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:59 (twenty years ago)

I am a boy! An overgrown, emotionally stunted boy!

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:59 (twenty years ago)

http://semantics-online.org/geek/files/lego_relativity.jpg

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:00 (twenty years ago)

I'm not a boy, not yet a woman.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:01 (twenty years ago)

No, I don't think I qualify as one. I probably have the brains and the special interests, but I have had enough of a social life and a love life to disqualify myself. And I think being muscly and good at sports (well, in my younger days - I'm a bit past it now) probably count against nerdhood too.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:08 (twenty years ago)

I always figured the order of cool went (forgive my use of male archetypes)

nerd (awkward but makes up for it with loads of intellect, can't be bothered to fit in - jeff goldblum in "The Fly")
dork (awkward, would like to fit in - Anthony Michael Hall in "Sixteen Candles")
geek (scary awkward, bites head off chickens - Andy Warhol)

I used to be a nerd but I think I've been slipping into dorkdom over the years.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:15 (twenty years ago)

I'm more nerdy when I'm by myself, but when I get around other people I become a real beer-guzzling loud idiot - and proud of it.

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:17 (twenty years ago)

weird I don't think popularity or sports are anything to do with it. I am happy enough with my social life but I think I could accept that I am a nerd, mainly because of my obsessive interest in music. Isn't it possible to be a cool nerd?

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:21 (twenty years ago)

< /clutching at straws>

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:22 (twenty years ago)

cool nerds don't ask that question. they're too busy working.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:24 (twenty years ago)

I see.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:33 (twenty years ago)

I think I used to be a nerd but I have since regressed into just being a boringly normal dude.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:38 (twenty years ago)

no you're a dork

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:39 (twenty years ago)

tee hee

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:39 (twenty years ago)

Am I?

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:39 (twenty years ago)

I knew this was a question for British people.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:40 (twenty years ago)

I thought the verdict was "doofus"?

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:40 (twenty years ago)

"Sexy doofus."

― Kenan (kenan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:41 (twenty years ago)

well the girlfriend thing gets you off the hook, n/a. at least with dorks who don't. like me. *scratches side, debates changing shirt*

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:41 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I am a sexy doofus.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 14 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

It's funny how everyone has his own set of associations for those three words, to me it's like:

nerd = immense amounts of computer/technology/math knowledge, grumpy, likely to disdain majority of ppl/least likely to be self aware out of the three groups, and if he is, then defiantly so.

geek = anything from a roleplayer to owning all the Cerebus phone books to owning all three Stax complete singles box sets. Does not hold the real-life power of a nerd (i.e. there'll never be a real life Bill Gates), but is most likely to be someone I'd actually wanna hang out with.

dork = beanie babies, romcoms, generally likely to act silly/childish, less ostracised than either one of the other groups, almost always charming in their own way. Kinda like twee for people that don't know what "twee" means, but not quite.

I'm pretty sure these definitions are as bs as they come, based solely on me self-identifying as a geek pretty much as soon as I knew what the word meant and wanting to distance myself from the less (to me) unsavoury aspects of the geek/nerd/dork spectrum.

As an aside, the language I speak most often doesn't as of yet have any "reclaimed" terms ro describe geeks/nerds/dorks, the only ones we *do* have come too dangerously close to "teacher's pet" to work. This is very frustrating.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 23:52 (twenty years ago)

also Ronan if you boil it down to "obsessive interest in a highly specialised area" then I'd say *of course* you can and should embrace it, otherwise the world would be rather dull, no? It's all good as long as you're self-aware enough to realise when it stops being endearing to your non-obsessive friends and starts being annoying (this goes doubly if you have fellow obsessive friends, and is obv much harder if you do, too: right now I'm in a situation where I'm making tons of new friends, and the one guy I hang out most with and me keep alienating others by talking about "Preacher" or Douglas Adams or *insert middlebrow-geek thang here*. Not good.)

Hahaha, this reminds me of the time that I introduced ILX lurker deathisahedgehog to a group of gurlz back when I was still living on the island, and for some reason we kept making Momus jokes, much to the puzzled annoyance of everyone else. Attempts to explain the hilarity of "HI DERE" also didn't go very far. The ILX Nerd = THE SADDEST NERD OF THEM ALL!!!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:02 (twenty years ago)

now i'm thinking maybe i'm a lil bit of all three.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:08 (twenty years ago)

Not having bothered to read this thread, I thought 'nerd' and to a lesser extent 'geek' were words that lost their cultural cache when we all left school.

Although, no matter how cool or sexy or otherwise my friends are, everyone nowadays seems to have a conventionally geeky or nerdy aspect of them - be it an expertise at programming or an obsession with comic art or a knowledge of early 90s sequencers or whatever. Ever single one of these is likely to provoke a "wow, you are so fucking cool!" reaction from someone. It depends whether or not you've got over this obsessive level of interest as being a bad thing or not.

Also - todays Hoxton hipsters = ex-nerds getting overcompensation in the revenge department.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:08 (twenty years ago)

(i.e. there'll never be a real life Bill Gates),

...should read there'll never be a geek Bill Gates (tho i like this version, too!)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago)

I just bought a really shithot new PC so I could play theSims2 and other gamez.

I'm not sure if that makes me a nerd, or just sad.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:12 (twenty years ago)

i think i'm probably a bit of a computer nerd.. (not so much of one though really) i know my computer stuff, but i don't get really enthusiastic about it, or ever boast about it, which (for me) would have made me a geek.

i used a have a big problem with being a computer nerd, but with the popularisation of computers and internet.. knowing your way round a computer seems to have become kind of sexy!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:16 (twenty years ago)

I get a pretty strong impression that a sorta socially-ept geekdom is like the aspirational state of everyone now? Like, (the right) "private" interests as synonymous with cool?

That might be a cloistered thing though.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:19 (twenty years ago)

I wouldnt know, as I'm surrounded by people who are obsessed with/talented with/into computers in some way: programmers, sysadmins, LAN builders, graphic artists, games designers, helpdesk geeks, etc. My house is covered in big fat books on the mathematics of 3d games programming and stuff like that (theres a pile of math and coding books in the loo!). They're not mine, they're the boys, but still.

I read a Netcomm modem manual this morning for something to do.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:22 (twenty years ago)

I'm not a nerd, but sometimes I'm a swot.

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 11 November 2004 00:27 (twenty years ago)

The person I currently have a crush on is one of the few people I know who doesn't seem to have geek levels of interest in anything at all.

(oh, apart from a former heavy interest in ten-pin bowling)

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:20 (twenty years ago)

this person sounds awesome

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:26 (twenty years ago)

yes, point me in the direction of more boys who have no interests other than ten-pin bowling.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:33 (twenty years ago)

i like ten pin bowling but unfortunately i have many other interests

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:37 (twenty years ago)

"Are you a nerd? "

I have an Apple. That answer the question, no?

― jesus nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:41 (twenty years ago)

Nah, you could just be a musician or a designer or something, innit.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:42 (twenty years ago)

you're a fruit nerd?

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:43 (twenty years ago)

I think mr nathalie was saying that he has an Apple->she is not a nerd.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:45 (twenty years ago)

"Omg I am a dork"-epiphany: Watching Beverly Hills as a kid, fervently trying to identify with Brenda, yet somwhere deep inside realising that there is no way in hell I'll ever be anybody else but Andrea.

― Hanna (Hanna), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:49 (twenty years ago)

nerds don't eat healthy food i guess xpost

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:49 (twenty years ago)

istarstarstar.net/starstarstar.net/photos/dork.jpg

― there's your answer (teeny), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://starstarstar.net/starstarstar.net/photos/dork.jpg

― there's your answer (teeny), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago)

crud.

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Nerd license...

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:20 (twenty years ago)

REVOKED!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:20 (twenty years ago)

You hatchetman of the police state.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:21 (twenty years ago)

:'(

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:22 (twenty years ago)

http://starstarstar.net/photos/dork.jpg

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago)

that was me pretending to be teeny a few weeks ago

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:26 (twenty years ago)

"I'm not a nerd, Bart! Nerds are smart."

― MILHOUSE (nickalicious), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:28 (twenty years ago)

I've considered myself a nerd since middle school at least, but not so much anymore. I spend so much time doing fucking homework that I don't have nearly as much time to get on these crazy nerdy obsessions or read for fun or do silly nerdy things. (It stopped being a stigma in college because the most fun people are the biggest nerds. This is because they're creative.) So, now I'm just an overworked sad lump of flesh.

― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:51 (twenty years ago)

Sometime around my 40th birthday I discovered I was a nerf.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 11 November 2004 18:00 (twenty years ago)

I've never really considered myself a nerd or geek. Perhaps odd, but not in a conventional way. Nerds/geeks are too square.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 11 November 2004 18:10 (twenty years ago)

Sarah said I'm the biggest jock she's ever dated. Which I was curiously happy to hear.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 11 November 2004 18:42 (twenty years ago)

a friend of mine once told me that in the school social staus tree, where 0 is the least popular and 100 is the coolest, i'd be somewhere 55-60, and added "but to a certain group of people you'd be 100". i think what he meant was that i yes, i was a nerd, but i was one of the more popular nerds. i was pretty studious, and my group was definitely the less cool group. i also embroiled myself in a few personal battles with teachers, which perhaps raised my social status somewhat. i still consider myself a nerd, but thats ok by me.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 11 November 2004 18:51 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Is there consensus yet on the distinction between a nerd and a geek? There doesn't seem to be on this thread.

I always thought a geek was a nerd with a specific, obsessive talent?

― moley, Saturday, 19 January 2008 05:48 (seventeen years ago)

without question.

― latebloomer, Saturday, 19 January 2008 05:51 (seventeen years ago)

(response to the thread question)

― latebloomer, Saturday, 19 January 2008 05:51 (seventeen years ago)

Well yes, we're all either nerds or geeks. But which?

― moley, Saturday, 19 January 2008 05:58 (seventeen years ago)

a gerk

― latebloomer, Saturday, 19 January 2008 06:02 (seventeen years ago)

you are nerds just for debating this

― rrrobyn, Saturday, 19 January 2008 06:13 (seventeen years ago)

I revel in my nerdiness.

― The Brainwasher, Saturday, 19 January 2008 07:51 (seventeen years ago)

I always thought it went like this:

Dork: person who lacks social skills, but really tries to have them, and fails miserably. doesn't like or care about much in particular to really get into it, so lacks credibility in nerd/geek communities.

Nerd: Someone who is really into a certain something, whether it be computers/role-playing games/music/film, but lacks social skills so mostly stays within a strict Nerd circel

Geek: Same as a nerd, only has social skills so has a wider friend base/can carry on conversation/interesting/etc...

― Gukbe, Saturday, 19 January 2008 07:54 (seventeen years ago)

I guess I revel in my geekiness then.

I'm nerdy, but I've always got along well with pretty much all of the social circles- though I didn't/don't really belong to any of them.

― The Brainwasher, Saturday, 19 January 2008 08:00 (seventeen years ago)

I like Gukbe's trilaterial taxonomy.

― moley, Saturday, 19 January 2008 21:43 (seventeen years ago)

I am the such of a nerd that can't hear the word without wanting to say, "You can't have any of my Whitecastle hamburgers, Her-vey," which is pretty damn nerdy.

― Abbott, Saturday, 19 January 2008 21:44 (seventeen years ago)

I'd swap the definitions of nerd and geek there. I've always considered myself a bit of a nerd, cos I like comics and sci-fi but have friends (the majority of whom do not share these interests) and am not scared of girls (anymore).

― chap, Saturday, 19 January 2008 21:59 (seventeen years ago)

I think after hanging out with lots of both cool and uncool nerds in college, I have started becoming a snobby nerd. The random people I meet nowadays just do not have enough weird obsessions and random knowledge and ideas to be interesting, it's just drinking and movies all the time!

― Maria, Saturday, 19 January 2008 22:32 (seventeen years ago)

Part of the snobbiness is a relief though - in high school I wanted to party and hang out with the cool kids but felt too awkward, and there's not the awkwardness barrier anymore, it's just not very satisfying.

― Maria, Saturday, 19 January 2008 22:34 (seventeen years ago)

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