Re:Why Nerds are Unpopular (2003)
by mercer on Saturday May 17, 2014 @06:33PM
(#7761318)
Rather than comment on your categorizing or ranting, I'll try to comment on an observation that I do think is partly accurate.
I believe nerds became 'cool' right around when computers became 'normal'.
In my youth, around the time where social issues started becoming important (teenager), computers were commonplace enough that most people knew how to use them, but they were by no means cool. Most of my peers had MSN messenger and a hotmail address, but gaming on a pc was uncool, spending significant time on the thing other than aimless chatting was uncool, and programming was extremely uncool.
Now, I get to help my younger siblings and their friends 'coding their site'. They're on reddit or 9gag, and grew up with Digg, Diggnation ('cool' boozing skater-ish dudes podcasts). They have phones with apps and chat throughout the day. They game a lot and might even try D&D. Computers are normal and almost cool now (although oddly there is a limit to that that I mistakenly cross in conversation regularly).
There was a time where this angered me a bit, because I felt like the thing everyone judged me as a 'nerd' for is now suddenly cool and they took it from me.
Now I realize that it's pretty awesome that something I'm REALLY good with has become so succesfull that cool people want in on it. I can, and do, use that to my benefit.
I believe nerds became 'cool' right around when computers became 'normal'.
In my youth, around the time where social issues started becoming important (teenager), computers were commonplace enough that most people knew how to use them, but they were by no means cool. Most of my peers had MSN messenger and a hotmail address, but gaming on a pc was uncool, spending significant time on the thing other than aimless chatting was uncool, and programming was extremely uncool.
Now, I get to help my younger siblings and their friends 'coding their site'. They're on reddit or 9gag, and grew up with Digg, Diggnation ('cool' boozing skater-ish dudes podcasts). They have phones with apps and chat throughout the day. They game a lot and might even try D&D. Computers are normal and almost cool now (although oddly there is a limit to that that I mistakenly cross in conversation regularly).
There was a time where this angered me a bit, because I felt like the thing everyone judged me as a 'nerd' for is now suddenly cool and they took it from me.
Now I realize that it's pretty awesome that something I'm REALLY good with has become so succesfull that cool people want in on it. I can, and do, use that to my benefit.