Nerds

Pretence

Just reading the Quake board concerning the article in the paper. It is obvious from a lot of peoples comments that being called a nerd is an insult and uncalled for.

Yet at the same time a lot of ye admit to being a nerd anyway so why get so insulted?
Are some of ye afraid to accept who ye are?

But who are ye, nerds?????


What is a nerd? Is it to some extent just another form of prejudice, a ignorant remark from those who don't understand?

Could anyone in their own words explain what a nerd is, what the word means to them?
If its in a national newpaper it must have some impact.......??

I myself wouldn't call myself a nerd, should I, just cos I use a computer all day and have an interest in them? As opposed to an obsession for fishing which is more sociably acceptable?

Or do u think it doesn't matter, tis only a name?


[This message has been edited by Pretence (edited 23-08-2000).]

Pretence

It seems narrow minded and abusive then for a national newspaper to use the term so loosely and without seeing anything wrong with it.

Without probably thinking that there could be.

I feel it is wrong for them to have used that word. I used to get a lot of abuse in school when younger and my confidence today, to some extent is still damaged from that abuse. Till I got bigger than them in Secondary school and bet seven shades of sh1te out of them (which tbh I didn't enjoy doing). Well maybe a little

I think it is careless of a paper to use a word like that so easily.

Anyone else see a problem with it?

Shiminay

I don't necessarily mind being called a nerd (it implies I know something the name-caller doesn't ), but the way that article was phrased, it was used in a (what I believe to be) very insulting manner.

I think the Boss has hit the nail right on the head - a nerd could be best described as a techie (a more appropriate name for us PC enthusiast types I think) who goes to (sometimes) extreme lengths to do something a little differently because they believe it's better.

And fair play to them - it usually is (allthough the length of time required to set something like that up is often times more trouble than it's worth).

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All the best,

Dav
@B^)
My page of stuff

Hobbes

nerd also nurd (nûrd).
n. Slang

1. A person regarded as stupid, inept, or unattractive.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

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[Perhaps after Nerd, a character in If I Ran the Zoo, by Theodor Seuss Geisel.]

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nerdy adj.

Word History: The word nerd and a nerd, undefined but illustrated, first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo: “And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” (The nerd itself is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry, like a thin, cross Chester A. Arthur.) Nerd next appears, with a gloss, in the February 10, 1957, issue of the Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday Mail in a regular column entitled “ABC for SQUARES”: “Nerda square, any explanation needed?” Many of the terms defined in this “ABC” are unmistakable Americanisms, such as hep, ick, and jazzy, as is the gloss “square,” the current meaning of nerd. The third appearance of nerd in print is back in the United States in 1970 in Current Slang: “Nurd [sic], someone with objectionable habits or traits. . .. An uninteresting person, a ‘dud.’” Authorities disagree on whether the two nerdsDr. Seuss's small creature and the teenage slang term in the Glasgow Sunday Mailare the same word. Some experts claim there is no semantic connection and the identity of the words is fortuitous. Others maintain that Dr. Seuss is the true originator of nerd and that the word nerd (“comically unpleasant creature”) was picked up by the five- and six-year-olds of 1950 and passed on to their older siblings, who by 1957, as teenagers, had restricted and specified the meaning to the most comically obnoxious creature of their own class, a “square.”

Of course, the correct word used to be "Geek" when referring to people who live on computers but since people now realised that your average geek earns three times more then the person slagging them the term Geek is actually a positive term (at least in the US).

Excelsior

nerd is what i am! i code. i play computer games. i love technical thingies. i see no insult in that term. it is a good word for what i am.
nerds inheirit the earth. that is how the story ends. geek is the same, neither of them impinge on my ego, as large as it is.
i think it is a fact that alot of the people here, specifically the people who post to the quake or the 1/2 life or the programming boards are nerds. i saw nothing irresponsible or poorly written in the tribune article.
when i was in school ppl used nerd as an insult. it hurt. but i be grown up now and it matters not one little bit. whatsoever. it means ppl regard me as having earning power and knowledge and when people use it they dont imply that i lack social skills.

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It is so lonely here in my indecipherable tower of speech impedimency

BossArky

Excelsior you nerd!

Shinji

Gents, anyone with decent technical knowledge will in a short amount of time be earning about 3 times more than the bored, ignorant hack who wrote that piece for the Indo. Who, by the way, probably works all day at a PC, does most of his/her business over email.. but of course, because that's WORKING with a computer rather than getting some enjoyment from it, this doesn't constitute nerdiness, oh no.

It's rare to find anyone with a clue writing for newspapers anyway.

Ja,
Rob

Paladin

To me, a nerd would imply:
not terribly social,
spends far too much time at his computer games, and no time at all at his drink (alcaholic of course, not pepsi you nerd steven ).

Strangely, ppl become less "nerdy" when drinking
Neway....
a nerd would also not be anyway athletic, and would be skinny (has to be skinny for some reason ).

Thats my idea of a nerd anyway.
I wouldnt consider someone a nerd just because he spends a lot of time at a computer because he earns money that way. Thats just stupid to think that.

And I actually rekon that me and most of me friends are far too social, alcoholic and sporty to be nerds

/me breaks down crying after accepting Im in denial
*sob*sob*
*sniff* Im just a nerd *sniff*

DeVore

I've been called a nerd most of my life. At first for using computers, then for extoling e-mail and usenet then for the web, now its weird because if I say "yeah I'm the head of an internet company" most people go "ooooh loads of dosh" or if I say I design websites they think I'm some creative artistic type.
If I play games, I'm still a nerd tho.

Over the years I've grown to love the term, its like telling me I'm on the right track
Do I find it insulting? Well its rather like the term "****" black men call each other that all the time, but would not take well to someone white saying it. If bunny calls me a nerd, I laugh at him (cos he's worse then me!) but it can be offensive. I've learned to shrug it off and in fact kinda laugh about it. Yeah I'm weird, into computer stuff, tinker with tech, explore new areas of communication, watch in fascination as the roller-coaster of technology flattens the people too busy calling me nerd to notice it.

Then I like to step over to them and point out that it was technology that just flattened them.

Anyone for music resale? Insurance brokerage? Travel agency? Book retailing? Computer hardware resale?...?...?...?

DeVore.

Gamblor

I've had my head in some for of computer since i was 4 ...i'm now 25. I've been called Nerd, Geek and it has no effect. Yes the Nerds around me when i was a kid are now bosses of the p3ons who called them names, and one thing i always found good , when people called me a nerd in secondry i always told them i wasn't a nerd .. i was a cyber warroir !!!!!!! :GRIN: ahhh my side anyway back to my nerd hobbies .. like ..porn !!!!

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***** Feel my Evil Neon Claws *****

SheroN

am I a nerd?...Andy?...anyone?

LegacyUser

Nerd - Something someone says when jealous of anothers skill.
Normally used by p3ons in school to make themselves feel better after calling a little smart chap a 'nerd' and laughing.
But that same p3on cries himself to sleep every night due to overwhelming envy.
For he will never understand Kemplars Law !!

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It's about a society in freefall....

BossArky

Nerds are ppl who open a web page from the start/run box...or those ppl who use some other type of mp3 player instead of winamp because it uses less processor power, even though they know that the power is not needed elsewhere.

NERDS!

Just because you use a pc alot and play games dosen't make you a nerd, your attitude does.

I suppose we're all half nerds....if you get half of each word you get HA-RD...so we're all HARD!

WOHOO.

havok*

I know i am

Excelsior

yeah if you can drink then you're not a nerd.

good one.
ha ha.

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It is so lonely here in my indecipherable tower of speech impedimency

Pretence

Originally posted by SheroN:
am I a nerd?...Andy?...anyone?

What?????????

What do you think maybe, it shouldn't matter what I think.

GreenHell

Nerds hmmmm who cares
You are what you want to be not what ppl define you be

Blitzkrieger

Originally posted by DeVore:
. If bunny calls me a nerd, I laugh at him

What kind of freaky ass drugs are you on!!!! I might talk to a bunny if I'm drunk but I never hear it talk back!!

havok*

Nerd, and PROUD of it!
p.s Startrek rulz

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Narf!
Clan Acid
Clan Bio

FreaK_BrutheR

3Y3 Y4|\/| |\|0+ 4 |\|u|2|).

Shiminay

j00 4|23 ju5+ +00 |)4|v| |\| |_33+ |v|4|2|<

Feicin' artists - pi$$ artist more like!

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All the best,

Dav
@B^)
My page of stuff

[This message has been edited by Kharn (edited 24-08-2000).]

Jak

I think Hobbes' definition actually hit the point pretty well.

1. A person regarded as stupid, inept, or unattractive.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

I think it's to do with how narrow a persons interests/activities are. The narrower they get the worse they are.

Hobbes

Actually I got the defination from http://www.dictionary.com/ . For all your wordy needs.

metalchicken

Apparently there is going to be a new term in the latest edition of the penguin dictionary. It is "mouse potato". It means (unsurprisingly) someone who spends ages surfing the net or playing computer games. So I'm not a nerd, I'm a mouse potato.

HA.

Mills

Mouse potatoe? LOL, can't see it catching on round Monaghan tbh I've never been called a nerd, nor have I ever heard anyone being called a nerd, strange

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I am inflatible !