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Nerdiness in your daily life. Are you "out"?

Started by The Larch, May 09, 2011, 10:01:47 AM

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Are you "out" as a nerd in your daily (co-workers, family, non-nerdy buddies) life? If so, how much?

I'm totally and flamingly out as a nerd, anybody who knows me knows it.
7 (15.9%)
I'm out but not flamboyant about it.
17 (38.6%)
I'm out for some selected people, but not for everyone.
9 (20.5%)
I'm hiding in the nerd closet, but willing to come out to some people.
3 (6.8%)
I wear my nerdiness as if it was a badge of shame and would never admit it publicly.
3 (6.8%)
I give wedgies to Jaron. Ha-ha, nerd!
5 (11.4%)

Total Members Voted: 43

The Larch

For the purpose of this poll, consider nerdiness anything from watching Monty Python movies, gaming to dressing up as an anime character and going mew at unknown people. Small anecdothe first:

So, today while having lunch and chatting with a couple of co-workers that are heavily into imported TV shows (it's something extremely popular over here in the last few years) one of them mentioned that she was following the new Game of Thrones HBO show, but hadn't read the novels. So we start to talk about it, and I fill her with the details she didn't get from just watching the show. At some point she mentions that some friends of her play some kind of Game of Thrones RPG, and asks me if I do. And I can't bring myself to admit it.

This is something that I've been doing since I was a teenager, hiding either partially or totally the depth of my nerdiness, out of, mostly, shame or fear of embarrassment. When I started playing RPGs I hid it from my parents. Only my closer friends in high school knew about it. When my buddies dressed up for carnival I never joined them. When I started working I never mentioned it to co-workers. Gradually I've phased out all the nerdier t-shirts I used to have. Only my equally nerdy buddies know it perfectly well, and when I meet new groups of people if they don't know it first I don't usually bring it up.

So, what about you? Is it only me the one who is behaving like a weirdo or is nerdiness still percieved as some sort of social stigma?

DGuller

Is there a difference between being a nerd and being a geek?  I'm unambiguously geeky, but I've never done stereotypically nerdy things, like watching Star Wars intentionally or reading a comic.

katmai

I don't know. Nerdiness as you describe it here is such part of mainstream culture now it seems to me.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Ed Anger

I really dislike folks who can't restrain their nerd shit. Keep it in the closet folks.

I don't want to walk into a Gamestop to pick up a manly sports game and see two grown men hitting each other with lightsabers. Fucking Nerds.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Malthus

Meh, I am what I am. I don't hide anything.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

jimmy olsen

Quote from: katmai on May 09, 2011, 10:04:39 AM
I don't know. Nerdiness as you describe it here is such part of mainstream culture now it seems to me.
Yeah, and it seems to be getting more so every year.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

The Larch

Quote from: katmai on May 09, 2011, 10:04:39 AM
I don't know. Nerdiness as you describe it here is such part of mainstream culture now it seems to me.

Even the "going mew at people" part?  :P

Valmy

My history/sports nerdiness is pretty up front.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

katmai

Quote from: The Larch on May 09, 2011, 10:06:51 AM
Quote from: katmai on May 09, 2011, 10:04:39 AM
I don't know. Nerdiness as you describe it here is such part of mainstream culture now it seems to me.

Even the "going mew at people" part?  :P
Anime freaks need to diaf
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Syt

- Open about: mainstream games, history, baseball, metal + classical music
- Open to a few: RPGing, animes/mangas, comics, horror/splatter movies, Star Wars, Star Trek, computer wargames
- Open to no one I know in real life: making maps, world building, making private mods for games (e.g. graphics/unis/logos for OOTP, some scenario building etc.), watching sfdebris reviews etc.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

katmai

But I mean big bang theory is popular on tv, as is stuff like mythbusters. Comic book adaptations are all over the big screen...
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Ed Anger

Quote from: katmai on May 09, 2011, 10:08:20 AM
Quote from: The Larch on May 09, 2011, 10:06:51 AM
Quote from: katmai on May 09, 2011, 10:04:39 AM
I don't know. Nerdiness as you describe it here is such part of mainstream culture now it seems to me.

Even the "going mew at people" part?  :P
Anime freaks need to diaf

squee
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

The Larch

Quote from: katmai on May 09, 2011, 10:09:46 AM
But I mean big bang theory is popular on tv, as is stuff like mythbusters. Comic book adaptations are all over the big screen...

About Big Bang Theory, yeah, the series is popular and mainstream, but what the characters themselves do is many times mocked. Then again they're over the top stereotypes.

Ed Anger

I have noticed my tolerance declining rapidly as I get older.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Drakken

#14
Quote from: DGuller on May 09, 2011, 10:04:31 AM
Is there a difference between being a nerd and being a geek?  I'm unambiguously geeky, but I've never done stereotypically nerdy things, like watching Star Wars intentionally or reading a comic.

Is Vin Diesel a nerd? Because according to Larch's definition, he certainly would since he is a D&D addict and even wrote D&D fanfics. Ask any chick whether Vin Diesel is a geek, though.

I object to a definition of "nerd" tied to a trade. A nerd is a socially inept dweeb acting like an inferior and treated as such by others, whether he plays chess or is a master karateka. The activities or pursuits associated to it is due to correlation, not causation.

To me, there is nothing to be proud to be labeled a nerd, period. It's by definition derogatory; if you are labeled a nerd, you are doing something wrong and should get your shit together. Geek is just an attempt to put a positive spin to it to make it easier to live with, but they remain nerds by any other name.