NERDISM IS DEAD - AND CASUAL HIPSTERS KILLED IT

Socio-cultural diversification

While the term ”Nerd“ in the past has been often used with a negative connotation, nowadays ”being a nerd“ is super cool and everyone suddenly refers to himself as such.

The “Nerd“-character became all trendy and hipster, and generally socio-cultural tolerated. THIS SUCKS! Everyone, who watched a single Star Wars Film or can remember that William Shatner has something to do with Star Trek is calling himself a nerd. The stereotypic Horn-rimmed glasses have become a mode accessory. TV-Series like The-Big-Bang-Theory gave the nerd stereotype a very certain attention but also a sympathy boost.

The connotation and terminology of ”Nerd“ or ”being a nerd“ has tremendously changed. If we think back to the (good) old days: A nerd is -by definition [1]- a person with a common interest in science and technology With a huge sense of interest. Often the Nerd-Stereotype is attached to certain grades in school, high intelligence or knowledge about general computer science. Old-School Nerds know Linux, Math, the periodic Table and can read large numbers in binary. Old-School Nerds are always right. Old-School Nerds do not just memorize Star-Wars, they memorize the Books as well. Old-School Nerds are always right. Old-School Nerds are totally creepy, anti-social, Nerds have cool Gadgets!

The nerd stereotype is nice for everyone to refer to because it has so many characteristics to identify with:

• nerds are interested in things nobody seems to care about
• nerds are underdogs/alone
• nerds are different
• nerds look weird
• nerds are smart
• nerds have certain psychological disorders
• nerds are not self confident

The characteristics are like a horoscope for stereotypeless trendy hipsters to identify with. In fact everybody can identify with it, because the range is so common. Go ask your friends if they think they're nerds. The answers will surprise you,.. or not!

So nowadays every World of Warcraft player with a certain amount of playtime is a genius? Of course not. Also the possession of a super cool hipster Apple Gadget does not make you a nerd. It's your nerdy personality. It's your sense of interested and your way of thinking. It's the stamina to fiddle with something a huge amount of time. It's full control over something at highest peak. It's about the highscore! It's because you are actually able to do it.

But are there non-subjective ways to measure the nerdlevel of someone? Usually a person refers to her-(YEAH WTF THERE ARE FEMALE NERDS NOW!!!) or himselfe as a nerd. But usually the nerd-to-nerd-relationship does not exists. A nerd won't call another nerd at the same nerd-level a nerd.

What happened to the real oldschool Nerds? You know,... the ones we knew before everyone used to be a nerd...

Well, they still exists, but it is not in the nature of a true nerd to be a member of a large crowd. The true Nerds broke camp very quickly when the whole hype started. Like everything rare on the internet it dissappeared when it become too crowded. There are parallels to certain bands and music genres and their association to it (i call this the mainstream-problem).

It will be interesting to see how the whole ``being a nerd thing´´ will develop, personally I hope it is just a phase, so that being a Nerd can become awesome again. On the other hand there is no reasonable chance this is going to happen.

True That..

So you like totally agree with me? You think you are a nerd? Shame on you. Stop playing being a nerd and find a new cult hipster scene to hide your small existence... Thanks. Even the President of the United states claimed to be a nerd. Srsly.. whats next?