What defines a Nerd?

Bazookatone

I was going to post a message on another thread about being called a know it all, but hey! I think this merits some serious discussion.

I used to think, when I was very young, that a nerd was the sort of streotypical image you saw on "Saved By the Bell" with no dress sense, thick glasses, that sort of thing.

Obviously, very few people in CTYI are like that. Personally, I think that this is a deliberate attempt to get away from the aforementioned stereotype. None of us wants to look like that.

Now people will say to me "oh you can't make generalisations. Everyone is unique and special etc etc" but of course, you can make generalisations about people, if you couldn't, then people wouldn't, would they?

Here are the telltale signs I look for when looking for nerdiness/CTYIness:
At one end of the spectrum
Long or unusual hairstyle.
Goth / Rocker / Metal Head style clothes esp Trenchcoats.
Lots of piercings
(These, I reckon, indicate a deliberate attempt to rail against the norm)
or

At the other end
General vagueness of dress sense, tracksut bottoms, fleece tops, neutral colours, runners.
(This, I reckon, indicates a complete disinterest in appearance)

spiderbeast

To me a nerd is somebody who is 100% obsessed with one particular thing in the computer world and with no interest in anything else in life.

Oh yes one more thing, somebody who is obsessed with LOTR.

Undergod

As a result of the actions of a load of people I know I've rejected the first end of the spectrum... in my opinion, God, the Great Spirit, whoever she really is, just invented teen rockers for comic relief.

AS for trhe other end of the spectrum, that covers about 84% of the population of Ireland.

And spiderbeast, how could you leave out Star Trek, and role-playing games? For shame! Two of the main pillars of nerdiness!

Hugh Hefner

Well I'm definately not at the first end of the spectrum. I'm not really at the other end either. I'm not sure if apperance is that important in identifying nerds. I hate Star Wars and I love Star Trek (I'm not obsessed though). Not big on the old role playing. Maybe I'm in a gray area. You know, that area full of all the brilliant people ever. Yeah, that sounds right.

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

See, on the face of it you can group people under very vague headlines... however once you start investigating the matter even a small bit you start to find that when dealing with a small group of people (which CTYI is, relatively) there are fair to many discrepancies to accurately apply a label to any sizable portion of those 'studied'.

Most people will eventually end up conceding, as Hugh Hefner did, that they are in the "gray area" - however, everybody knows that's where all the fun people are precisely because of their individual quirks.

StupidLikeAFox

Yeah, id sorta agree with kev, although i really dont like a lot of sci-fi. Id sorta count a nerd as someone with really poor personal skills and/or a really wierd sense of humour.

I dont think nerds are necassarily the ones going against the norm, i figure thats a whole different kettle of fish

Raphael

I always thought:

nerd = technology
geek = sci-fi et all
dork = lack of social skills

Firewalkwithme

Dictionary definition:

Nerd

StupidLikeAFox

UD Definition

Raphael

Google Image Search Definition

StupidLikeAFox

yeah, ctyi was just full of these guys

Hugh Hefner

UD Definition wrote:

One whose IQ exceeds his weight

I'm stealing that one. Plus it's true for me.

Raphael

I was just joining in the hyperlinking..I wanted to be cool...(glaHOIvin)

LiamD

A nerd - Someone who deep down knows they are one but on the surface denies it

-or-

A nerd - Someone who is unfortunate enough to have academics as their area of excellence instead of something more commonly accepted.

Undergod

More commonly accepted... like RolePlaying!

Bazookatone

See, I knew this would stir up some good conversation! Last Summer, I heard that someone had divided teenagers into 9 "tribes" defined, I assume, by their language (ie slang) clothes, musical tastes and pastimes etc etc. It sounded intriguing.

I can visualise a sort of exotic, three dimensional graph or a big Venn Diagram, but with spheres instead of circles, where a person can be plotted via some strange co ordinate system based on the above parameters, and their exact position determined ie someone who's uber "goth" would be in one corner, while an uber "chav" would be in the exact opposite corner. "Rockers" and "skaters" would be near the goth area, because there's some crossover, while sporty "Rugger Buggers" and "pretty boys" would be nearer the chav end of the spectrum. But it's complicated, because you could possibly have someone, for example, who's a skater and a pretty boy, and someone who's a rugger bugger and a "chav" (eg Colin Farrell). But it's impossible to have a goth chav, because if two ever come into contact they ,literally, annhialate each other!

Can anyone else come up with the other "tribes". Mine above are just guesses.

Crash

next person to say "chav" gets banned.

Raphael

Why, what's wrong with saying it?

Hugh Hefner

Raphael wrote:

Why, what's wrong with saying chav?

Banned.

mentalimplosion

this is possibly the most ridiculous thread i've seen in a long time

Crash

i'm very tempted to ban both of you for that.


reasons for not saying the C word:

...i say so.

Raphael

Rightyo, I won't say cha...cha...charity..... or that word you don't like either ^^;

It wasn't me!

You can't categorise people. Here's the thing, people will all fall into grey areas. Take me for example:
*I play rugby
*I love heavy music
*Academically I'm not bad
*I love piercings
I'd fall right on so many lines there'd be no point trying to decide what I am.

Piste

I like the venn diagram idea. Try and put everyone into some little circle 'Likes rock music' 'Plays rugby' pretty soon these circles will start to intersect and it will get to the point where everyone is in their own little point of intersection of a lot of categories and we find out how individual everyone actually is.

I hope that made sense

It wasn't me!

Yeah, that's the thing. people are always going to cross over between groups.

Crash

Those who create stereotypes are always those who scream "i'm an individual" from the rooftops.

:rolleyes:

TalkISCheap

there had to be a ridiculous thread to balnce the heavy islam one. other wise the boards universe would implode horribly.

or something.

elephamt king

Bazookatone wrote:

Here are the telltale signs I look for when looking for nerdiness/CTYIness:
At one end of the spectrum
Long or unusual hairstyle.
Goth / Rocker / Metal Head style clothes esp Trenchcoats.
Lots of piercings
(These, I reckon, indicate a deliberate attempt to rail against the norm)

there are about 5 people with trenchcoats at CTYI.
did it ever occur to you that these people may belong to a musical subculture subculture within which trenchcoats long hair and piercings are "in vogue".

idiot.

Plunky

elephamt king wrote:

idiot.

Back in the day there were more, many more... check your history before accusing Jack of idiocy!

Undergod

crash_000 wrote:

Those who create stereotypes are always those who scream "i'm an individual" from the rooftops.

:rolleyes:

Ah... Carlow's teen rockers... I love you...

Crash

Undergod wrote:

Ah... Carlow's teen rockers... I love you...

try living in dublin...