Nerd

NERDS Alex McGuane

Nerds are popular figures. They exist in television, movies, and books. They have woven their way into the very heart of entertainment today. They are an expected character in almost any situation. Nerds are supposed to be shy and brilliant, but awkward, characters. However, not all nerds are this way, so why do we view them this way when many “true nerds” are not shy or awkward at all? Nerds as people have been both misrepresented and abused since they have been considered a separate group. They do not deserve to be treated as any less because they are nerds. They have been referred to as talking with “ sturdy but unimaginative prose that waxed rhapsodic about G-forces and interstellar trajectories.” [|(][|THE LITERATURE OF NERDS GOES MAINSTREAM – TIME)] What is a nerd then and why is it so looked down upon to be a nerd? Nerds are often made fun of or picked on early in literature and entertainment such as in [|Jimmy Neutron’s episode “Normal Boy”] in which Jimmy drains his brain so that he can become normal. The removal of all his “excess” brainpower seems to make life much better for all involved implying that Neutron’s genius was his only prevention from being liked by the other kids suggesting that nerds have problems only because they have bigger brains. However, problems such as awkwardness or shyness are not caused by brain size but rather by the social and familial influences on the subject affecting how they respond to different situations. An awkward person, while he or she may be a nerd, might have grown up lonely and thus become a nerd because there was nothing for him or her to do. The possibility that the nerd did not become one of free will but as a way out of an unwanted lifestyle suggests that there are two types of nerds: those who are made and those who are born. However, the only separation between the two is how the different nerds’ brains developed. Some kids who are called nerds are the way they are because they have a higher I.Q. or a higher development in their brain. However, others receive their behaviors through psychological forces from parents or schoolmates. More often than not those who have the potential to become nerds, i.e., the ones who are born, do not do so. They do not become nerds because they early on realize how knowledge comes to them naturally faster than the rest of their class and they lower their efforts or slack off to fulfill the, typically, subconscious desire to be part of the group. The nerds that are not naturally nerds, however, come from many different paths of life, but the kids are normally from homes where they feel unloved or have very few friends because the kids unknowingly made some sort of mistake that estranged them from the rest of the group forcing the children into isolation. They search for other things such as books or technology that can give them a way to interact and feel as if they were part of the whole because of their learned abilities. They find out how to affect things through indirect activities such as computer code such as in the movie [|WarGames]. Some retreat into books and do not willingly leave the safe haven that they have created in their mind. Nerds are defined as people who are estranged by their peers because they found a way to get accepted back into the fold even if only through knowledge. They do not seem as if they should be considered weak since they have to survive the abandonment of their friends and peers simply because of elementary school politics. They are suddenly a lot more powerful seeming than what would be expected (based on the common image of a nerd). Often times, students are considered nerds even when they are just simply disciplined because of the study habits the groups participate in. This could be like the [|Academic Decathlon] team where student are required to learn a large variety of material by early December. If a child has been taught to study and they do it as they were raised they might be considered a nerd if it is an extreme amount of studying, but the reality is most nerds do not do that much work. They find the thing they truly want to do and stick with it no matter how tough the choice. The group called nerds is often diminished and pushed to a supportive role even though its members do most of the thinking such as Hermione Granger in the __Harry Potter__ series. She solves the riddle in First year, and then makes the Polyjuice Potion, and figures out it is a Basilisk in the Second year. However, in all three scenarios she does the brain work and then gets removed from the picture. The nerds have the same or even greater abilities than the heroes, yet the heroes get all the spoils that should at the very least be //shared// with the brains of the operation. If nerds are equal or surpass the rest of the population then is it simply fear of their power that causes us to cast a negative shine on the portrayal of the nerd? Nerds are people too and they have succeeded where other people where have crumbled. So, do the nerds really need to be regarded with disdain? No, they have just become such a dangerous force to the way that our society is run that they are put down. With the “smart people” out of the picture then it makes it easier for politicians to push agendas on the public because the people that would find the flaws are shunned because they are nerds. It is time for the nerds to rise up and realize that they may have their skills in different areas. They can still be who they want to be even when society is against them.

Works Cited and Other Related Sources “”The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” Normal Boy/Birth of a Salesman (TV Episode 2002) – IMDb.” The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 01 Dec 2011. []. “THE LITERATURE OF NERDS GOES MAINSTREAM – TIME.” //Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews- Time.com.// Times Magazine, 8 July 1996. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. []. “WarGames (1983) – IMDb.” //The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).// Web. 16 Nov. 2011. []. // Academic Decathlon® : The Premier Scholastic Competition for High School Students //. United States Academic Decathlon. Web. 04 Jan. 2012. . Griffin, Evan James. “Nerd Poem │Poems about Geeks │Nerdy Poems │Humorous Poems.” //Humorous Poems │Witty Poems │Hilarious Poems For All Ages!// Web. 27 Nov. 2011. []. Rowling, J.K. //Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.// Paw Prints, 2008. Print.