Do you consider yourself a nerd?

[.Sev]

Never considered myself a nerd ever. I haven't even thought about it until this thread.

[Eris]

Okay. People started talking about video games, anime, startrek and social life. We seriously need to define "nerd" if we want this thread to have a 0.0000000000001% chance of going right. (Because this thread's chance is now -1000000000000.)

A nerd is a person who is very studious or reads a lot and enjoys gathering knowledge and taking a lot of time learning things normal people would never bother with. Nerds -usually- socialize with other nerds, but that hardly falls under the definition.

So, NO. If you're a lifeless person, you're NOT a nerd. If you're a loser, you're NOT a nerd. If you play tons of video games, no body cares, and you're NOT a nerd. And if people call you "nerd" just because you "look like one", you're not even close to a nerd. There's no such thing as a "nerd look". God damn the media!

If knowledge is your heroin, you ARE a nerd. Period.
(And if you are hurt by my (intended) probabilities fail above, you're probably a nerd.)

Now that there's a clear definition, I'll answer this thread: Yup, I am a nerd. I've been one since ever I was born. Though I admit that during the last couple years, I wasn't even as 1% as nerdy as I used to be. But that was the most stupid mistake in my whole life. I'll make sure I'd never repeat it ever again.

I think that being a nerd IS having a life. I don't understand how all those people call it "life" without nerdiness.

Well, yes, and no. You can be an anime-nerd, or a sci-fi nerd. There is no particular well defined target of a nerd's knowledge. It may be science and philosophy and things of that nature, but it might just as well be in-depth knowledge of something like anime, or sci-fi.

If you for example know that Tom Baker who played the fourth doctor in Doctor Who was briefly married to Lalla Ward who played Romana, who went on to marry famous biologist and author Richard Dawkins, as well as being friends with Douglas Adams, who wrote a number of episodes for Doctor Who (The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada (unaired)); one might conclude that you are a nerd.

And stuff like Star Trek TNG is correlated to nerdiness, as it's essentially nerd porn with it's consistently well written technobabble and metaphorical sociological and anthropological discussion. While non-nerds may enjoy the show as well, nerds are more likely than average to do so.

[Stripes]

My classmates and relatives consider me a nerd.. but I don't quite think I am one.. Yea.. i love it when they do so.

[Hypatia]

No but some people thinks so because i love my computer and i like to read alot.

[Furore]

I definetely wouldn't call myself a nerd, though I do have noticable geekish tendancies.
I go ape for most new electronic devices, start talking specs with some of the people working at computer stores and have a fondness for gaming and some anime.
I was the only real geek in my group, though most of them are usually up to some Street Fighter 2 or Guitar Hero once in a while.

[Skylar1]

Well, yes, and no. You can be an anime-nerd, or a sci-fi nerd. There is no particular well defined target of a nerd's knowledge. It may be science and philosophy and things of that nature, but it might just as well be in-depth knowledge of something like anime, or sci-fi.

If you for example know that Tom Baker who played the fourth doctor in Doctor Who was briefly married to Lalla Ward who played Romana, who went on to marry famous biologist and author Richard Dawkins, as well as being friends with Douglas Adams, who wrote a number of episodes for Doctor Who (The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada (unaired)); one might conclude that you are a nerd.

And stuff like Star Trek TNG is correlated to nerdiness, as it's essentially nerd porn with it's consistently well written technobabble and metaphorical sociological and anthropological discussion. While non-nerds may enjoy the show as well, nerds are more likely than average to do so.

excatly. I don't really think there are any "prerequisites" to being a nerd. Though, one may want to ask themselves some questions.


Do you see the light of day less than 4 times a week?

Have you ever looked up the meaning of a word that no ever uses?

Did you watch all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis?

^ Did you watch it again?

Have you ever gotten into an argument with a friend about which pokemon would win in a single-only match?

When someone asks "how's it going", do you proceed to tell them about man's undying pursuit for answers, which then turns into a 2 hour lecture about philosophy and/or quantum mechanics?

Do you use the words "highly" and "relevant" in the same sentence more than 3 times a day?

have you ever looked a line of HTML and laughed?

Have you, honestly, had a crush on more than 5 fictional characters in your life?

Did you ever stay up all night in the cold outside a Gamestop for the midnight release of a new video game?

have you, EVER edited Wikipedia?

Do you know who Michio Kaku is?

^ Can you quote him more than 4 times at any given moment?

If someone says "Macs are better than PCs", do you get angry?

While buying an external hard-drive, did a consideration in your decision include whether or not it would have the ability to survive a nuclear fire.

Are you Bill Gates?

Did Tales of Symphonia change your life?

Have you ever worried that one day there would be a shortage of 60-sided dice?

Would going to Comic Con, or E3 "complete" you?

Is your "perfect gf/bf" a robot that you yourself built?

If someone said "Are you going to the party on saturday?", would you respond with "I don't understand the question".



And, last but not least,



Would you ever stop making out with someone and tell them "brb, Sailor Moon just started"?

[-GAZKUL-]

okay.....

I didn't know there was a difference between nerds and geeks when i made this thread.

and out of the above i am proud to fit into all of 1 of them, in early january for twelve hours according to Wikipedia David Cameron's father was Mickey Mouse.

[Diocletian]

Guys, stop trying to be the catch all nerd.

"I play video games, watch anime AND read comic books. But I'm not just that, I'm well read in Java, etc".

Guys, that's not a nerd. A nerd is close to akunohikari said. You have to be pretty smart and be somewhat of a social outcast to be a nerd. Video games aren't nerdy. Being on the computer isn't nerdy. Your anime watching habits aren't nerdy. Most of these just mean you don't have a social life.

[Token Black Guy]

But then again i always been called a geek, nerd, lame(?), etc. But i never really considered myself to being a nerd. My friends don't think i'm a nerd, but it sucks that most of my cousins think i'm a nerd and avoid me wherever they see me. I don't go to family reunions/get-togethers because of this. And for some reason, i get the vibe that my cousins think that i think that i'm "better" than them, which isn't true. Maybe this has to deal that i'm the second person out of my cousins in Michigan to graduate high school. I'm not really sure, but maybe. I always try to be the nice guy, but for some reason i get negative treatment a lot.

[RaShayRitto]

One cannot be a man sporting this avatar and sig and NOT be a nerd

[Mr. Panda]

No. Not really.

[FanoBliv]

what the title says, basically how much of a nerd are you? if you consider youself one at all.

okay the title is probably wrong and i get the impression this thread has already been done but hey

Nerd is just a lable, a word created by the mentally inferior to try and exploit intelligence and use it against people who they feel threatened by because their insecure.


By lableing yourself a nerd, you reinforce the stereotype and feed trolls (well...not me).

---------- Post added at 11:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 PM ----------

It is not that I didn't include, I merely omitted it because it is well established that Nerds are far different from their Geek counterparts in both skills and attributes.

There is also a, lesser known, hybrid known as the "Gnerd". Who's sole mission in life is to collect that which is more precious than air- Swag. We will not associate with these muts though.

You both failed to leave out the fact that there is no one true definition for Nerd or Geek, since they aren't official words (merely slang; as you're aware of).

[Datenshi]

I'm not a nerd, but I am a card-carrying otaku.

Or as William Gibson beautifully put it, a pathological techno-fetishist with social deficit.

[Eris]

You both failed to leave out the fact that there is no one true definition for Nerd or Geek, since they aren't official words (merely slang; as you're aware of).

'Just slang' that's been around for 60 years (as is the case for nerd) or over 100 years (as is he case for geek) isn't just slang anymore. Both nerd and geek exist in modern dictionaries, so they are very much official words.

[Furore]

Pfft. Everyone knows that Nerds are a type of sweet, sweet candy.... uurrrggghhh....
If any of you are in fact, Nerds, I might just eat you.

[CrystalAce]

Not really. I mean, I am fascinated by computers and all other catchy digital appliances but then, who doesn't in this digital age. Still, calling myself a nerd...*shudders*...

[Aku no Hikari]

Eris and Ericgamer: No, I think that what you defined is not a nerd, it's a geek.

The problem is that the definition of both words really varies among people. Some people define "nerd" as a very intelligent person, and "geek" as some useless wannabe-nerd who is not very intelligent, and is annoying as hell (keeps talking all day long, and to everyone around them, about the useless topic they like). Maybe that's why you're using the word "nerd" very broadly (and that's why Eric said he won't relate to geeks).

I think the definition of a geek is someone with an intense interest in a certain topic. It's simply what you were talking about. For example, Pokemon geek, Anime geek, etc. The word "geek" is not an insult in anyway. It has no implications about the person's intelligence or annoyance. It's exactly what you are talking about. Most people who replied to this thread are geeks, not nerds.

On the other hand, the definition of nerd is a bit more strict. There's no such thing as Anime/Pokemon/Star Trek nerd. I think the best way to contrast "nerd" with "geek" is by saying that "a nerd is a knowledge geek."

By lableing yourself a nerd, you reinforce the stereotype and feed trolls (well...not me).

I somewhat agree with this. Though I don't care about feeding the trolls, I don't like stereotyping myself or other people in anyway, where it positive or negative.

Even if the words "nerd" and "geek" now have a positive meaning, it had a negative meaning in the past, and it still does, to some extent.

Now out of the topic, seeing Eric's checklist, I have a somewhat high score. Here (the ones I omitted are just "no") :

Do you see the light of day less than 4 times a week?

FOUR TIMES?!! Do you think I'd go out my home THAT much?

Have you ever looked up the meaning of a word that no ever uses?

Yup.

Have you ever gotten into an argument with a friend about which pokemon would win in a single-only match?

Hell yeah.

When someone asks "how's it going", do you proceed to tell them about man's undying pursuit for answers, which then turns into a 2 hour lecture about philosophy and/or quantum mechanics?

It happened a few times (not for two hours though) until I decided to never open these topics with someone again. They somehow always manage to not understand like half of what I say, and are almost always not interested in it.

have you ever looked a line of HTML and laughed?

Yes. Actually... Ohhhh! I still have that page in my bookmarks! I didn't only laugh, I almost fell on the floor laughing.

Just open this page, view the source, scroll down, and start WTH'ing:

http://www.fujinonbinos.com/

Have you, honestly, had a crush on more than 5 fictional characters in your life?

I can't count them. But they're at least 20.

have you, EVER edited Wikipedia?

Yes, various times. Though this happened a long time ago. I haven't made a Wikipedia edit for maybe more than one year.

If someone says "Macs are better than PCs", do you get angry?

I roll my eyes. And maybe laugh or make a sarcastic statement.

However, I DO get angry like hell when someone says IE is better than Firefox.

While buying an external hard-drive, did a consideration in your decision include whether or not it would have the ability to survive a nuclear fire.

That's irrelevant.

Are you Bill Gates?

Bill Gates is my son.

Did Tales of Symphonia change your life?

I didn't play Tales of Symphonia. However, my life got changed various times by some anime or games.

Is your "perfect gf/bf" a robot that you yourself built?

Maybe 50 years later, but not now. Robots are still unsatisfying for a relationship . But I might not live long enough to see (or I'll be too old then).

If someone said "Are you going to the party on saturday?", would you respond with "I don't understand the question".

I don't respond with that. I make up a useless excuse for all party (and almost all non-party) invitations I get, and stay at home. I don't like parties in any way.

Would you ever stop making out with someone and tell them "brb, Sailor Moon just started"?

I don't watch anime on TV. I buy DVD's. And I didn't watch Sailor Moon.

Here's a better measurement of how nerdy you are:

Are you highly interested in topics like physics, psychology, philosophy, logic, languages and programming?
How many programming languages do you know?
Do you prefer Ruby or PHP?
Do you use Microsoft crap when there's a better open source alternative? (If you use Linux, you get the highest score for this question. I don't use Linux though. I use Windows XP, the Microsoft Office Suite, but most other things are OSS. Even Notepad.)
How long do you spend on Wikipedia?
How long do you study for a perfect mark in Maths/Physics/etc.? (The lower the nerdier.)
What's your IQ?
What's your Jung personality type? (If it has an "E", you're not a nerd.)
Do you hate Chemistry? (Nah, I just made this up.)
Do you refuse to do something for a reason like it harms the nature, even though everybody else does it all the time?
Do you have a poor vision? (Like me... Orz. Though not necessarily.)

I think that if you get a high score on this, you're definitely a nerd. If you have a very low score on this, you're not a nerd no matter how much you like technology and play tons of video games. You can call yourself a technology geek, a video game geek, etc., but not a nerd. (And again, no shame in the word geek, it's totally fine. I consider myself an anime geek, somewhat a video game geek, a technology geek, a military geek, etc. You can be a nerd and a geek at the same time.)

Well, maybe my definition is just... my definition? o_O

On a last note, even though I don't like to include social life or the person's look under the definition of "nerd" for the sake of not turning it into a derogatory stereotype, I am indeed in a more than mild (but less than severe) lack of social life. But then again, I don't see this as a bad thing at all.

[.Lovebeat]

Yes. I do have a social life, where I leave all the nerdy stuff out (but that kind of depends on who I am with), but once I'm by myself again I go back to whatever I was doing before (anime/manga/tv-shows/computer games).

[Digital Dragon]

Regardless of the definition of others, this thread was about whether you consider yourself a nerd, not whether others do. But I suppose people have to inflict their opinions on others regardless.
As for me, I reiterate my nerd status: I have transcribed articles on physics and astronomy, and I have worked on a role-playing game wiki called the Black Vault for those who play Heroes Unlimited, so I do indeed consider myself a nerd.

[FanoBliv]

I'm not a nerd, but I am a card-carrying otaku.

<joke>You, my dear, would be a this. </joke>

'Just slang' that's been around for 60 years (as is the case for nerd) or over 100 years (as is he case for geek) isn't just slang anymore. Both nerd and geek exist in modern dictionaries, so they are very much official words.

However, the public opinionated definitive of the word is far too varied for everyone to have the exact same dictionary-born definition. So...it's still slang...
"...slang is the continual and ever-changing use and definition of words in informal conversation, often using references as a means of derogatory terms, comparison or showing likeness..."

[blueangel06661]

Have I considered my self well I'm assuming you mean anime/video game nerd? Then nope. I'm a closet otaku and I don't get really obsessed in my anime watching hobby. Honestly I'd fail at anime trivia if it existed. ahaha.

But honestly I've never met a "nerd" that calls themselves a "nerd"... I hang out with them but I don't think they would voluntarily say "hey I call myself a nerd..."

[Movie Dave]

i am not...yes a read alot, and i like to search for things to learn every now and then.but i am considered an otaku...i rather stay that way >.>

[GameGeeks]

Nerd, no, geek, yes. I even dabble in dweebism.

[Cantelope]

Hell yeah. I love doing math, I find physics fun, I read philosophy treatises when I'm bored, I play WoW, and I watch anime/read manga. And I tell my friends/family who don't care, all about it.

I'm either that annoying guy, or a huge nerd/geek. I suppose it's supposed to be negative, but I don't feel too bad about my life atm.

[Gizoku]

A nerd is a person who is very studious or reads a lot and enjoys gathering knowledge and taking a lot of time learning things normal people would never bother with. Nerds -usually- socialize with other nerds, but that hardly falls under the definition.

Well crap, if that's how you define it, I guess I am one. I enjoy learning about something that interests me in which I dont have an abundance of knowledge of.
I remember one time I read pages on Feng Shui for about 4 hours >.> It was a long article and I was interested in how everything works the way it does.