What Makes a Nerd

I think we have all asked ourselves that at on point or another. I would define it as someone who has a deep love of something from pop culture.  You like sports a lot? you are a sports nerd/jock. You like Star Trek a lot? You are a Trekkie/trekker( I don't know if that's the right spelling, also they may denote how much of a trek fan you are, but that just splitting hairs.)

It isn't new phenomena either. It's been around for as long as people have had culture. In the Roman empire you had riots that would break out if certain teams would lose at the coliseum. Fast forward a bit to the 1800s and you have Sherlock Holmes and his sherlockians. Moving forward a bit more you have the birth of the word "nerd" by Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo.

©Penguin Random House Company

Not the best representation ever, but this is about the time you get the stereotypical look people associate with the modern of a nerd. The white shirt, pocket protector kid with glasses and pants pulled up way to high. It's also around this time you see science fiction really explode with the twilight zone, moves based on the space race(like the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still"), and the UFO craze that went on about that time thanks to said space race and Roswell. The 60s see the explosions of modern comic books with heroes with modern problems. Then things start to pick up again in the 70s and 80s with many of the nostalgic nerdy properties you see people still into today (Blade Runner, Star Wars, Terminator, etc) and the Birth and fall of video games. The 90s saw the fall of comic books, the rebirth of the video game industry, and the explosion of anime in the west. Then the 2000s saw the explosions of video games, superhero movies, and all the media dedicated to what nerds knew all along.

 That the feeling of being nerdy over stuff is awesome! I  give that quick nerdy history lesson to say all that to say that being nerdy and geeking over things is normal and is nothing new. It's a way of showing you are passionate in anything that interests yourself. A way to escape your humdrum life for a bit and escape into a fantasy. It's never been an exclusive club, though most nerd I know that treat it as such are basically terrified of being made into a victim of bullying or being made a fool of.  I feel that an understandable, except if the try to lash out at someone who is on their side or trying to have a healthy discussion on the topic of within their interests.( that happens way too much). In the end though being nerdy is about coming together and sharing your passion and identifying yourself with that passion. So...

Stay nerdy my beautiful friends.