Nerds vs. Geeks
Some quibbles: You can’t really distinguish nerds from geeks based on whether they like Star Trek or Star Wars. A lot of nerds aren’t into either SyFy or Star Trek, while many Geeks are into both. Geekdom in fact predicates heavily on intense interest in niche categories like technology or sci fi/fantasy, so Star Trek and SyFy actually fall pretty heavily into the Geek category…not necessarily the Nerd category. (Although there is some overlap.) Geeks aren’t necessarily book smart, but tend to have encyclopedic knowledge of whatever weird thing—often mundane—they’re into. Geeks may know the name and backstory of every single character—no matter how minor—in every single Star Wars movie, or they may be able to rattle off a list of things that differentiate one generation of USS Enterprise from another. They could also be into WOW or old/rare video game consoles, etc., etc. (Note: If you speak fluent Klingon or Elvish, unless you’re a linguist, you’re a total fucking Geek.)
Nerds just tend to be very book smart, have a ton of knowledge in more academic categories, work very hard, and tend to be sort of goody-goodies. They’ll be the ones who push their glasses up on their nose as they stand in the middle of your dorm party going, “You guys, I have a test tomorrow! Can you keep it down? I’m going to call the RA!” And, okay, they may not come to your room and actually say it…but nerds are often thinking this stuff, even if they don’t actually have the courage to do it.
What nerds and geeks do have in common is a certain sense of alienation and often a lack of social skills. Not all do, but the ones who don’t usually have some awkward adolescent past that they’ve internalized and has never quite left them, even if they’ve grown out of it. It’s worth noting that a lot of nerds are geeks and a lot of geeks are nerds. But they fit into the two different categories for completely different reasons.
In case you’re still confused: Nerds are the people who grow up to be Bill Gates, while geeks are more likely to grow up to be Steve Jobs…or 40-somethings who live with their moms and play WoW 20 hours a day.
I guess what bothers me about this whole thing with the split above is that the determination of Geek vs. Nerd tends to be more about what is cool right now (Star Wars) and what isn’t (Star Trek—although seriously, wtf, come on, Star Trek is awesome.) Geeks wear cool clothes and have soul patches and wear glasses with thick rims and Converse and are creative and have expensive Star Wars memorabilia…while nerds are just people who are sad. Honestly, I can see just as many Geeks sitting on the Nerd/sad side of this graphic, and I don’t know many Geeks at all who look as smug or cool or self-satisfied as the Geek in the image above, because most real Geeks just aren’t that cool. They wouldn’t know how to be, and even if they somehow accidentally stumbled into it, they wouldn’t be aware of it or embrace it. The point of being a Geek is not to be cool. The point of being a Geek is that you’re not…and you really, really like it! (Although I guess I can see how in the age of hipsters, being a Geek for the irony of not being cool because it’s cool has left some people confused. I guess that might be what really bothers me. The Geek here is really just a Hipster.)
And seriously? Geeks definitely drink energy drinks from gas stations. You can’t have a LAN party without them, amirite? You should try engaging genuine Geeks in a discussion of which energy drink is the best sometime. Not only will the debate last a long time, it will get heated.
PS: My Geek husband will be very proud that his Nerd wife wrote this.
(via memory-hole)
