Dear people of facebook who like the following things: comic books, cartoons, anime, manga, Pokemon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pac Man, Dr. Who, cute socks that come in strange patterns, video games of ANY kind, witty t-shirts, Star Wars, Star Trek, cats, Batman, WWE, Mythbusters, The Big Bang Theory, ANY superhero, action figures, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, or ANYTHING involving space or history: YOU ARE NOT A NERD. Please stop calling yourself such. A nerd, by definition is, and I quote from Merriam-Webster: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially: one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits. I believe that you have misled yourselves into believing that nerds, geeks, and dorks are the same thing. A dork is (quoting again from the same source): a person who behaves awkwardly around other people and usually has unstylish clothes, hair, etc. See? Thats not as bad, for lack of a better word, as nerd. Think of it as nerd-lite. A geek is: 1: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake. 2: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked. 3: an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity. Now, Im just going to follow the assumption that none of you are described by number one. Two and three are are geek-lite. Its all by degrees, see? I am SO tired of seeing people I know post provocative pictures of themselves reading books or comics and posting captions such as, Im just a nerdy girl hanging around the house today. Excellent. So you didnt post that to further your career as an attention whore? Because guess what? A real nerd doesnt take pictures of themselves being nerdy! Thatd be like you taking a shot of yourself drinking water or brushing your teeth or putting on your shoes. Its just something you do all the time because thats who you are ALL the time. You were born that way. Now, as I sit here in my Dr. Seuss pants knowing that I have no less than 3 documentaires I need to watch on my DVR (including the history of bread) and 2 Mythbusters, a drawer FULL of weird socks, and I cant WAIT for season four of Game of Thrones, do I consider myself a nerd? I must because I posted this. Wrong! Although I am rather socially awkward at times, do not give two figs what anyone thinks of my clothes, and am devoted to both academic and artistic pursuits, I am neither slavishly devoted to them nor am I socially inept. Just because youve jumped on the latest bandwagon (Dr. Who) (Oh, Im gonna get a TONS of comments about THAT) or you watch the History Channel or you dress as a Stormtrooper for Comic-Con, that doesnt make you a nerd. Wearing glasses doesnt make you a nerd. Talking about your nerdiness doesnt make you a nerd. Ive only known two real nerds in my life: one is currently a DEAR friend of mine, and the other is my ex-boyfriend James who graduated as an astrophysicist at age 17. Call yourself quirky, off-beat, eccentric, unconventional, strange or odd, but dont call yourself a nerd. And dont be so gung-ho to pigeonhole yourself either. Just be you. And just know that every word I said after quirky, is a synonym for quirky.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:44:10 +0000
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