My son is doing a college project on how nerds are perceived in various cultures and among genders in the United States. If you would like to help him out and are interested in responding to a short survey, please follow this link. Thank you! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BBPSMK2
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I regularly perceive one in the mirror.
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^+1. Couldn’t have said it better.
However, like Gus I am old enough to recall when “you’re such a nerd” was NEVER meant as a compliment.
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I grew up in a generation who faced this as a kid, though, i do not hear it often nowadays
I responded. Out of curiosity, what will the results be used for, and how old is your son?
My son is a senior at Washington State University and the survey responses are being included in a capstone project for his major in Integrated Strategic Communications. His chosen topic is how perceptions and stereotypes of nerds are impacted by culture, gender identity, and class. Thank you for all your responses! They are really helping him get a sense of the real world implications of this topic. (We come from a FIRST family and that is why we posted here)
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Having grown up a nerd, surly in no small part thanks to my father @GeeTwo, it has been weird to see the transition of both Geek and Nerd from fringe and often ostracized sub-cultures into pop-culture throughout the mid and late 2010s.
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I took it, I hope the project goes well! It really made me think about my definition of “nerd”.
The way I see it, the stereotype has transitioned from “nerd is an insult you weirdo” to “nerds are very passionate people who love to talk about their interests and that’s a great thing”.
I would consider myself a a nerd in many ways. To me the word Nerd doesn’t have a negative connotation.
As a High School Teacher in rural MN here is what I see. Kids who I would traditionally see as nerds are held in relatively high regard. Maybe not as much as a “good” athlete, but in the classroom and on the robotics teams the other students listen to the Nerd. They realize the Nerd probably knows whats going on.
Also I see that Nerds are naturally introverted ( i don’t know if this is a cause or effect). This makes it harder for them to fit into social groups other than their own.
I also see the negative perceptions are much less toward female Nerds.
Just my thoughts. Interesting topic.
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Can confirm, Jesse is a nerd. But who am I to talk as somebody who is posting on a robotics forum late at night.
I think our culture is becoming more “nerd-friendly”. Things that were once considered nerdy are becoming cool. The line between stereotypes is becoming blurred. The culture is changing for the better is this aspect and I’m all for it.
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I suspect that there might be geographic differencess that he won’t have data to spot.
Nerd-level technical competence is so common in the SF Bay Area that I spent my answer focused on a second part of the “nerd” stereotype: social (in)competence. It gets expressed on a variety of axis, but can be summed up as not spending much effort understanding and caring about other people’s perspectives and feelings.
People socialized “female” often don’t have a choice about paying close attention to other people’s feelings from a young age. It’s very rare to meet a woman who is technically competent and also abrasive in the same way as a (tech bro / mgtow / beta / insert male nerd archtype) is.
Much as I love that the “nerd” label is getting reclaimed as an honor, we need the new nerds to care about other people’s experiences as a rule.
Not because our actions should be dictated by other people’s feelings, but because our solutions always affect more than just us.
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Personally I wouldn’t view the FRC community or myself as a nerd, more so a group of people or a person gifted with a valuable skill or trait which can be further used later on in life. Stating this, could I be considered a nerd in anybody’s eyes? Yes, but that is the matter of your opinion and how you view life. In reality I just scroll through Chief Delphi, and gather information or rather yet from some handy manuals, do I memorize them? No, but the skill I would call would be problem solving. Others may have gracious professionalism, building, wiring, communication or business skills. But it is of my belief not what the person does that makes them a nerd but what they are capable of.
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It would be really interesting to see the difference in perception from somewhere like chief, vs a general population. I guess that’s why he’s doing a study on it.
disclaimer: I am very much a nerd
I think it’s important to not white-wash nerd culture. As s-neff alludes to, nerds don’t have the best rep and I feel it is important to discuss this to avoid a back-patting circle of ignorance. It very much is one rotten apple spoiling the bunch, but many wrongs have been done in the name of nerd culture. I feel like a lot of nerds turn a blind eye to this behaviour as not to create drama or bring attention to the group, but all this leads to is more toxic behavior.
Be cognizant, be accepting and let’s improve the perception of nerd culture.
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Most people who call themselves nerds aren’t nerds. Nerds can’t be successful unless by sheer luck. They usually figure this out and start working to stop being such a contemptible nerd. A lot of folks haven’t ever met a real nerd. They’re actually quite rare because usually at some point the nerd realizes their nerdiness is a character fault and goes about remedying it. At least that was (is?) the case for me and my nerdiness.
Nerd is a negative word (conveying lack of experience/application or auxiliary skills necessary to manifest their primary ones) and I refuse to make it mean anything less than that just because someone’s mad about being called a nerd.
Being good with tech or whatever doesn’t make you a nerd. only being good with one subject matter does. That’s not healthy and we shouldn’t encourage it.
edit: you don’t have to be competent to be a nerd, even. Just “studious” (and you can dump a lot of time studying something without learning). Lots of nerds are blindingly incompetent.
TL;DR: Don’t redefine words as an excuse to not self-improve
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I’m always baffled by people that treat language as something static, like you’re doing here. Words evolve in their usage over time, and nerd definitely falls into that category.
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Strictly speaking - a Nerd is an animal from Dr. Suess’s hypothetical zoo.
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I’m old enough to remember the gradual change of how society viewed “computer nerds.” It wasn’t sudden, but it started around the time that Microsoft became big. When Bill Gates appeared on TV or in magazines and newspapers, he looked like a stereotypical nerd. He talked like a nerd. He was one, but he was also unbelievably rich. Until then, successful business people didn’t usually look and act like that.
That actually provided support for kids like us who were into computers. Without Bill Gates being a wealthy and successful role model, parents wouldn’t have been keen to buy their kids home computers. Remember, computers were very expensive at the time, and they were completely obsolete in about 3 or 4 years. Having one in the house was a luxury.
If you were at all athletic, many parents would spend enormous sums of money on sports equipment, all on the rather remote chance that you might be a big sports hero some day. Of course, if your kid was clearly no good at sports, you could buy them a computer, support their rather odd obsession, and still have the hope of them making it big.
This was all in the minds of parents though. I assure you that throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s being a nerd brought you no credibility among your peers. Liking computers was still weird, and being weird is still the worst sin you can commit in high school.
However, during that same time, the internet was starting to explode, and as we passed the year 2000 (and the dot-com bubble) and recovered, suddenly there were lots of newly minted multi-millionaires. More importantly, throughout the decade from 2000 to 2010, there were multi-millionaires heading companies that produced products that young people used… what we used to call “Web 2.0” or we now call “social media”.
The final straw was the iPhone, released in 2008. While cell phones were popular before the iPhone, actually carrying one around was still not cool. The trend was to make them as small as possible so people could hide them either in purses or pockets. Real nerds wore them on belt clips. Teenagers texted each other like crazy using T9. Nobody took their phone out to show their friends. The iPhone changed that. Suddenly everywhere you went, people who were decidedly not nerds would whip out their iPhone to show you how cool it was. Even now it still feel surreal to me.
That was the end. I’m not even sure there are “computer nerds” anymore. Smartphones made computer technology mainstream. Since everyone had a Smartphone, then everyone suddenly needed people who understood technology. This attracted a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise have been interested in technology. People who understood technology weren’t referred to as nerds anymore, they were just “smart.” They had a future.
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Until you step into highschool again.
From the student’s perspective nerd is definitely an insult.
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It kind of comes back to the definition, doesn’t it? I think for our generation, “nerd” was synonymous with “computer nerd.” I doubt that’s the case now, as computers and smartphones became so mainstream.
So does “nerd” mean socially awkward? Well, then yes it’s certainly an insult, and that means it’s tied into bullying.
I also think the method of bullying has changed. In the 90’s you’d have to consciously think about which school door to exit from, or which hall to use to get to class, to avoid being assaulted. Now I assume more bullying has moved online, where it’s harder to avoid.
Can a nerd play a sport? could the capitan of the football team be a nerd?