Nerd

Nerd [ nɜ ː d] (English for professional idiot, geek, nerd, nerd / geek, outsiders ) is a social stereotype that depressed people is especially in computer, science fiction, or other areas of science and technology. Sometimes an above-average intelligence quotient (IQ ) is mentioned as accompanying property. The most common computer enthusiasts are meant. While the term was originally negative, especially in the sense of social isolation, busy, he has changed in Internet communities and computer players and freaks to a self-deprecating self-description.

Origin

The origin of the word is unclear. The first written evidence is found in the poem If I ran the zoo of Dr. Seuss from the year 1950, however, a reference to the meaning described here is not recognizable.:

" And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka - Troo And Bring Back at It- Kutch, a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too! "

According to another explanation of the term is an acronym for Northern Electric Research and Development (now Nortel Networks). Work uniforms of the employees are thus consistent with the lettering NERD have been provided.

According to an article in the IEEE Spectrum, the term nerd is originally from the reverse reading " drunk" ( engl. drunk), thus: " knurd ". The term is intended to refer to college graduates who are specifically dedicated to the study, instead of parties to celebrate. From " knurd " became in the course of time " nerd " ( " kn " beginning of a word is pronounced in English " n").

Jokingly (English: " not emotionally addressable type") is also an acronym for Non Nerd Emotionally Responding Dude used.

Whether someone is a nerd, depends primarily on the judgment of the environment. Two rating variants can be identified:

• Outsiders my nerd tend pejorative.
• Affected use peers and themselves over the term vice versa as a reward.

Nerds are often in a weak social position due to their social isolation. Characteristic of people who are often referred to as nerds or who like to call as are above average strong interest in obtaining technical and general knowledge as well as striking embossed rational thought and behavior. This makes them from the perspective of their peers often appear maladjusted and reclusive. Many nerds clearly show little interest in the prevailing youth or social trends. In another sense, Nerds focus on special that other people can seem boring or abstruse, but not necessarily.

In demarcating social usage, the term may allude among other things, to alleged deficiencies in the emotional accessibility of an individual. Nerd groups can easily be perceived as a cultural clique or be demarcated against anti-intellectual sentiments. Some use variants of the Nerd concept alluding to the fact that an interest in anime, science fiction or fantasy is particularly high among nerds.

Nerd was initially a member of the American-English language and youth in the U.S. was particularly known for frequent use in the television series Happy Days. Initially, the term was used in the pejorative sense, later as a self- empowering award within Nerd Nerd groups or subcultures. In the late pop culture often arise literary figures with nerd character, appearing increasingly in comics, movies, TV shows and computer games, sometimes even as protagonists. Among other things, by frequent use of the term on the Internet was the English term nerd in the European youth culture language input.

Carl Sagan in his book dedicated to the dragon in my garage - or the art of science, nonsense to expose a discussion about the nerd stereotype among scientists a chapter, Maxwell and the Spinner (English Maxwell and the Nerds ). This Sagan cites a summary of the features attributed to the American students in a survey to their nerd classmates. Herein, the opinions and prejudices are to be found, as they probably originally included the nerd stereotype:

"I know an expert for eleven year olds. I asked them to characterize the typical opinion today about the so-called vertrottelten scientists. I must stress that it reproduces the usual prejudices and do not want to emphasize about: This spinner carry her belt just below the rib cage. They wear short-sleeved shirts with chest pockets that house a significant number of four-color pens and pencils. In a special belt bag they carry a programmable calculator. All have thick glasses with a broken nose bridge, which is patched with adhesive plaster. They lack any social polish, and this lack is not aware of them, or he do not care. If they laugh, they give snorting noises. You blather in an incomprehensible language with each other. You take every opportunity in all courses - except in sports - to gain a few extra points. [ ... ] You look down on ordinary people who laugh at them in turn. Most spinners have names like Norman. There are among these spinners more boys than girls, but both enough. They never go out with a girl ( or boy ). If you're a spinner, you can not be cool. And vice versa. "

In the contemporary Japanese culture of otaku, a similar phenomenon.

Sociological Approach

Nerds can be seen as actors with a very open social network feature, which consequently exerts only weak social control over them.

Variants

The stereotype of mad scientist has many features in common with the Nerd. Nerd but is mainly applied to young people, while having a mad scientist always a professional scientist older age is meant (also: Mad Scientist ). Mad scientists are generally provided with more positive rating than nerds and playing in the literature, a common role.

Nerd -mode waves

As a frequent subject of satires and parodies of the original nerd stereotype is closely linked to the same artistic representations, which frequently recurring external recognition features received a special consolidation in the cliché and on the other hand, contributed to the development of new fashion accessories. One of the most famous film artists who deal with the figure of dry, clumsy intellectuals, is Woody Allen, who is presented in the corresponding film roles with horn-rimmed glasses, checkered flannel shirts, high fitting trousers and scruffy or old-fashioned men's hairstyles, with all the horn-rimmed glasses and outside its roles to a permanent identifying individual makes. These core motifs of the artistic view of the Nerd character can be found since the 1960s, many decades later in countless representations by comedian, actor or artist.

Particularly striking horn-rimmed glasses, reminiscent both of the nerd stereotype as well as to former intellectual and artistic role models are taken up by a number of artists and musicians as individual or even meaningful fashion accessories.

In a new retro wave, oversubscribed designed eyewear models are titled along the lines of horn-rimmed glasses initially only mockingly as nerd glasses, but offered a short time later in the trade under this name, and yet learn more widespread and attention.

Contrary phenomenon

All variants and " relatives " of the Nerd common is much lower compared to the high level of professional competence social competence or capacity for self- expression, for "show". The existence of exactly the opposite gifted people is indisputable, however, has so far failed to produce a modern, catchy phrase in popular culture - with older terms such as " Blender " or formal as " imposter " exist entirely. This is all the more remarkable, have left as phenomena around contrary to the Nerd inclined people its mark in popular culture.

Well-known examples

• Wil Wheaton, American actor, committed regularly in his autobiography and in his blog about his private life as a nerd and also embodied in his role as Wesley Crusher in the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation a young nerd.
• Bill Gates, American computer scientist and billionaire, used in the 1970s and 1980s, a typical nerd image from which, however, he withdrew again to the early 1990s.
• Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer and initiator of the kernel Linux, the development of which he coordinated until today, describes himself as a nerd in his book Just for Fun.
• James Rolfe, known as the " Angry Video Game Nerd " (formerly "Angry Nintendo Nerd " ) in self-produced Internet videos a disgruntled computer players ( " gamers " ) represents that plays classic, but bad video games and thereby in over their qualitative deficits game Setup and Procedure ( " gameplay " ) omits.
• Thom Bray played as Dr. Murray " Boz " Bozinsky in the television series Riptide a typical, almost exaggerated nerd.
• Steve Urkel, Nerd of the American sitcom Family Matters.
• In the U.S. sitcom The Big Bang Theory are the major players nerds with respective professions. The highly exaggerated behavior of these nerds is the central theme of the series.