Me So Nerdy

What is a nerd? Everyone has a stereotypical idea of what a nerd is. We all have our own opinions but yet have the same basic idea. Many people would define a nerd as a loner with no social or competitive skills, but in some degrees that is not the case. A nerd is someone that would rather excel in something intellectual, such as computers or science, instead of something social, such as sports or parties. A nerd is not someone that tries their hardest to be popular or even cares about popularity. Although most would agree that nerds wish they had the social abilities such as a “jock” does.

It is a stereotypical fact that nerds are intellectual people. But why are they? Is it because they are born with it? Or is it because they have more brains than brawns? There are some nerdy people out there that are good at sports and things of that sort but most prefer to use their brains instead. A movie made in the late 1980’s called “Revenge of the Nerds” does a good job of stereotyping nerds. It’s a movie about a nerdy frat house that has a bunch of different types of nerds that are basically outcasts. This fraternity has the best academic scores but has the worst athletic curriculum and has no social status with the college council. Most if not all of the people in this fraternity have tight high-water pants with suspenders attached to them, glasses and slicked back hair. This movie gives a good visual of what nerds really look like, whether on the inside or out.

A nerd is not usually competitive, unless it’s a good game of Magic the Gathering, a strategy type card game, or Dungeons and Dragons, a role playing board game. But these types of games do not take strenuous acts on ones body, such as football or wrestling. Football and wrestling require ones body to be fit and top shape. This means a lot of exercise, something nerds do not do very much if at all. It does not take a fit body to make a good move with a card or reload Microsoft’s Windows on their hard drive. It requires knowledge and strategy to do these operations, something a nerd would rather do instead of compete against other people.

Everyone can agree that the captain of the football team is one of the most popular people in High School. But being the captain of the chess team means that they are at the bottom of the social chains. It is because it takes more brains to play chess than it does for football. Also nerds tend to favor activities that can be done alone or with a friend, instead of activities where a large number of their peers are all together. Cheerleaders wouldn’t be found at a chess game because there isn’t much opportunity to socialize. Even more so, chess is not a sexy sport. If one was to ask a person what a nerd looks like they would say something along the lines of a scrawny little guy with big round glasses. “Jock’s” on the other hand are idealized as big, lean, with huge muscles. They are seen as sexy figures compared to nerds, but not a lot of brains. Which is why nerds have such a problem with being social, they often have low self-esteem.

People see nerds as smart loners. This is because they would rather broaden there minds then get drunk and party with the popular people. Some people just don’t know how to play the popularity game, others just prefer the company of a small group rather than large get togethers. Some see themselves at being better at being the nerd than being some jock want-to-be. Some have self-esteem issues and have social problems. But they all are outcast of the popular group, and have turned to the intellectual side of things.

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