Geek vs. Nerd

It seems to me that some people now a days have problems telling a nerd from a geek. So, I’m going to set the record straight. That way this confusion over who is a nerd and who is a geek can end. To first illustrate my point I have a little video from youtube to help start you thinking. 

 As you can see from this video there are some distinct differences between a true nerd and a true geek. However, there are some places where the two overlap. Which leads to the confusion of the two. To help explain the differences I will preface this. A nerd can have geeky qualities and a geek can have nerdy qualities. These two kinds of people do not have incompatible qualities.

To help you better understand the differences between a geek and a nerd I’ll take you to the origin of their respective names. The word “geek” originated in the early 1900s. It was given to a person who worked in a carnival sideshow. This person would perform bizarre or disgusting acts, like biting off the head of a chicken (gross).

The origin of the word “nerd” can be traced back a doctor by the name of Suess in 1954. In a line from one of his books he wrote, “A merkle, a nerd, and a seersucker too!” The connation for a nerd is of a person who is irritating, unattractive, who is brilliant but chooses non-social pursuits.

Here’s what those terms actually mean for someone in today’s world. A geek is someone generally knowledgeable (often to the point of obsession) on a certain topic. Geeks are often very good with technology. They are frequently self-taught in how to do things like computer programming. The hallmark of a Geek is that they closely follow whatever obsession they have. Wither it be technology, science fiction, fantasy, etc. These people love to obsess over their favorite fandom. Also, a geek is a very social creature. They appear to look like your average person. Unless you start up a conversation about their fandom you won’t be able to tell if they are a geek at all.

A nerd on the other hand is a very different animal. A nerd is generally solitary. If they do socialize it is with others of their own kind (other nerds). They also specialize in things that a geek enjoys as well. This is often where the lines get crossed about who is a nerd and who is a geek and that leads to major confusion.

I hope to have cleared some things up for you guys. To clarify, I am a geek. I have friends that are and aren’t geeks. I obsess over fandoms like The Legend of Zelda, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. However, I do have some nerdy tendencies. I often prefer solitude because socializing can cause some anxiety but I will still do it and enjoy meeting people from all walks of life. However, I love hanging out with others of my own kind. It helps to recharge my spirit when I know that I’m not the only geek walking around my college campus.

Now, which one are you?

(if you want more information you can find it at this link: http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks it’s where I got most of my information is very helpful)        

The Guild

              It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here. A lot has happened since the summer of 2014. I’ve gone through two more semesters at school and have passed my classes on the way to a brighter future. However, for most of that time my circle of friends has remained rather small.

To be more accurate, I should say tiny. The only close friends I had were my boyfriend, Adrian, and our friends Cooper, Kyle and Shelby. Unfortunately, Kyle moved to Chicago to attend another school at the end of the fall. I’ve since heard from him and he’s moving to Texas. I wish him the best of luck. But, this is not the only thing I have to tell about my current circle of friends.

This past semester at school something awesome happened. It took a while but I now have a big group of geeky friends to hang out with. It took until the end of the semester for us all to actually make the first step and talk but we were happy to finally meet. It just proves what happens when we stand up and open our mouths. You learn a lot by speaking sometimes.

We’ve affectionately nicknamed our little group “The Guild”. The name just fits. After all, a name like the Geek Squad is already taken. So, we had to come up with a name that worked with our little collection of geeks. So, “The Guild” just works. A Guild is an organization with related interests or pursuits (according to merriam-webster.com). That describes our little group perfectly. Each of us is some form of geek. There is a difference between a geek and a nerd but I’ll post about that another time.

The Forming of the Guild

The forming of the Guild was one semester in the making. A lot of its members just came to our school this winter. So, I’ve only known them for this semester only. For most of the winter 2015 semester it was just me, Adrian and Cooper. Shelby was at work. She had crazy hours and couldn’t often be with us. So, Cooper, Adrian and I would hang out in our little corner of the school café and geek it up during lunch.

Now, we had a preferred spot to sit. The school café had to levels. A top level above ground with the normal tables and chairs. Then there’s this stairwell in the center that leads down into a lower area. It kind of looks like a pit. In the pit is where we liked to hang. They have some really comfortable couches down there and it’s relatively quiet. So, for most of the fall semester we’d chill on our favorite couch and launch into our geek talk until we all had to run off to our next class.

This semester we noticed that we had some competition for our favorite spot. Whenever we got out of class a large group of kids we’d never seen before had taken our favorite spot. We all didn’t really like that. We’d be comfortable there for a while but we weren’t going to be rude and say, “Hey, this is our spot. Get out.” So, we’d slide over to the couch on the other side and chill until the huge group left.

Now, our small crew of three is not what you’d call extroverted in anyway. So, we’d keep to ourselves. So, for most of the semester we’d go through this dance with the new group that liked our spot. They’d be there we’d either sit in the other couch or if that was taken find a good spot in the main floor to eat instead. This lasted until about the last week or so in March when Shelby, who was friends with some of the people in the other group, asked them if we could all sit together. They said yes and the four of us moved into our favorite spot once again.

That day we all learned what we had in common. We were all geeks in some form or another. Each of us had someone we could relate to on some level. Wither our fandom of choice was gaming, TV shows, anime, movies, or books, we now had a much larger group to talk to and make friends with.

The Members

The last time I counted the members of our group I noticed that there were at least ten of us in this group. That’s a lot of people to fit into one tiny corner but we make it work. Sometimes, a few of us sit on the floor or grab a chair from a nearby table to fit but we still have fun talking about our day and discussing geeky things like the upcoming Avengers movie.

I only know a few of my friends well enough to remember their names. I’m admittedly bad at remembering names. However, at least I know that my small crew isn’t so small again. We all come from different parts of the country and have varying interests. For instance, another girl who I have gotten close to is Sarah. She’s a SuperWhoLock fan (meaning that she is a fan of the shows Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock) we bonded over our love of this fandom(s). We’re both quirky college girls who love being geeks. She’s fun and great to hang out with when we both want a girl’s day out.

There are a lot more guys in our group than girls currently so having Sarah and Shelby around help the group get some much need female influence into our group. However, the new guys in our group are fun as well. I can’t remember all their names but I look forward to hanging out with all of them more often over the summer.

I hope to have some zany stories to tell from this little group soon. We’re all a bunch of geeks. There’s a lot of things that we can do and I look forward to doing it with them during the summer. See you guys after break!

(The point of this post was just to talk about my new friends. If anyone who I named in this post is embarrassed or upset. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you by it.)