Let’s look at the two titles and see what images they conjur:
Nerd: Revenge of the Nerds, Erkel , Bill Gates… You’re typicak glasses-wearing/pocket protector wielding genius with little to no social life
Geek: Zero Cool and The Phreak in the Motion Picture, Hackers. They were smart, witty, on top of their game, and cool! These are the people you hung out with in school, but realized afterwards they had “nerd tendancies” but by then you didn’t care.
So I set the examples forth… I, am a geek.
(computer saavy, yet with a social life…sorta)
I hung out with the geeks in school. Except in 10th grade. Then it was the goths.
<3
Well.. nowadays a “geek” is just someone who is really into something… You can be a “sports geek” or a “Metalica Geek” or a “tv geek”, “movie geek”. That TV show “beat the geeks” showed this… they were not uncool…. just very very very knowledgable in a subject.
Theoretically you could be a “sex geek” or a “male/female anatomy geek” if you knew a ridiculous amount of information on the subject.
A nerd implies social stigma (see revenge of the nerds). As generally being uncool…
So Geek is cooler by default. Although it is very possible a “Trek geek” would also be a nerd.
In general if someone calls/called me a geek… it was most likely short for “computer geek”… I remember when I was younger.. people being like… “what do you do? go at home and sit on the computer all day?” and they would make some funny typing motion to make fun of me…
(of course now.. I see those people on AOL Instant Messenger all day and never being idle) I guess their time investment into sports growing up did not quite work out as they planned…
I think back in the day… being really smart you were a geek/nerd/whatever. It was not cool to be really smart. You were a loser if you knew everything… Actually you were just CALLED a loser…
As we get older and past being teenagers… people who do not know everything now FEEL like a loser… No need for anyone to tell them so…
Well stated!
Hey, I’m mrs_kennedy’s friend. I just saw your name, and thought I’d check out your journal, and of course you immediately intrigued me with this post.
I’ve actually thought about this subject before. Mostly because when I first met my boyfriend he told me he was a g33k. And well, as time has gone by, and I’ve met some of his friends, I think geeks tend to be the cooler ones. But you have to remember that within the geek title, there are many types of geeks. Or so I’ve noticed anyway.
Geeks are like snowflakes, no two are alike. lol
If you read this full thread, my old roomate carmine hit it right on the nose!
Yea, I realized that right after I posted. lol *teehee*