Is there even such a thing as a nerd any longer? What is a nerd?
In my previous post I wrote about defining ones self by ones interests. That post was mostly about how this can cut you off from potentially enriching works of art. Defining our selves by our interests accomplishes a few things. One, so many things about ourselves are vague and subjective and indefinable. I can think that I'm compassionate but what does that really mean? Am I really? How compassionate am I? Seven? A grade B-? I walk by homeless people every day on my way to work and wear headphones so I don't have to be panhandled to. Does that dock me 15%? It's almost impossible to nail down these things in terms we can actually understand and parse out. What we can do is measure them by the thoughts of others. I can't for sure say that I am any nebulous quality. I can't say I'm nice or funny or smart. If enough other people tell me I am, I can start to build that identity out of the opinions of others.
Some identifying building blocks I can put in place myself are those that come from interest and preference. Though I can't say for sure that I'm creative, I can say for sure that I like old video game music or that I enjoy Wes Anderson movies. This is comforting to me, as well as to people in general, I think. In the last few years, social networking sites like friendster and myspace and facebook have become ubiquitous. One of the defining characteristics of these sites is the ability to create a profile, which often is just a list of demographic information as well as media preferences. People will put a lot of effort and care into these exhaustive lists of what's little more than "I like this" statements.
This serves two purposes, the first being that they want other people to know they like these things in order to seek out common interests. If I like the music of The Magnetic Fields and you like the music of The Magnetic Fields and we're in an elevator, we will have something to talk about. The second thing, however, is the idea that what we like says something about ourselves. I used to be a firm believer in this but now I'm not so sure. Though most people I am compatible with are also people I have common interests, it doesn't account for the contradictions in this. I have several friends who I have very little in common with and there are people out there who like the things I like that send shivers down my spine. I wouldn't say that our interests say nothing about us but perhaps they say less than we think.
When someone defines someone else as a nerd or a dork, it generally comes down to what they're interested in. Videogames, Dungeons and Dragons, Comics, Pokemon, the Cthulhu Mythos, all of these things are considered nerdy interests. However, some of these things, or at least aspects of them, are becoming more mainstream all the time, to varying degrees, specifically the nerdy interests that are mediums in and of themselves. I would argue that video games have almost entirely made their way into the mainstream. With the success of the wii, the rise of casual computer games such as Peggle and party games like Rock Band, a large number of people play video games in some way or another. Comics are also becoming more mainstream. The summer blockbuster has almost become synonymous with the comic book movie. And indirectly, comic book style story telling elements have crept into other mediums in the case of television shows like Lost.
Right now, it's silly to ask if someone likes music or likes movies as it's assumed everyone does. I believe that some day the same will be said of comics and videogames. Stodgy defenders of the idea of old media or standard media may rankle at this idea but I think that's a little foolish. Think of those who argued that movies would never rise to the same level as books or stage plays. In the seventies, owning a computer was nerdy and involved spending time at college mainframes and organizing punch cards. Now, not having a computer is almost like not having a refrigerator.
If previously subjugated interests are moving into the mainstream, can they still be considered nerdy? Can you even define a nerd by their interests? Part of what defines a nerd is the depth of their interest. Having a passing interest in video games is considered more acceptable than having it be your principle hobby. Could you apply that standard to interests that are not traditionally considered under the umbrella of dorkdom? What of sports? Consider the casual video game fan who enjoys playing first person shooters on his computer. He maybe plays for an average of 2 hours a day. Is this person more nerdy than the guy who shows up at a football game shirtless and painted in the team colors? Is he nerdier than the fantasy baseball fanatic who spends hours agonizing over stats? Of course not. What of the military history enthusiast who spends weekends dressing up as a long dead soldier only to pretend to die over and over again? I don't think so. I read somewhere that you should never judge something by the worst of it’s fans.
And if the litmus for deciding what is considered dorkery is the level of interest, rather than the interest, I contend that dorkery is not a bad thing. That kind of fanatical interest in something that is ultimately inconsequential is a unique and pleasant feeling. When there is a dvd or comic coming out that I'm interested in and I can feel genuinely excited about it, it reminds me of the feeling of being a kid on christmas eve. Pure dumb excitement. There is an attitude that one must distance themselves from unimportant things, that it is more mature or cool to express only a vague interest in things for fear of...what? Appearing to be interested? I would say that dorkery is to be embraced as hard as you can, especially as the definition widens. It would be a better world if self described architecture geeks or sports nuts would see the similarity between themselves and LARPers or X-men fans. It's all ultimately inconsequential but none of these things are inherently low quality, none of the people who are interested in them are inherently low quality and there is plenty of room in life for inconsequential things. In fact, they're often my favorite things. I like pizza but I don't get excited about pizza the way I did about Fallout 3.
If this seems like a lot of words to just simply say people shouldn't judge based on interest, it pretty much is. That's not to say I don't believe in good or bad taste, because I do. It's just to say that the medium is not an indicator of this and we should be allowed our bad tastes.
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