In honor of all that is holy and nerdy, I will pause for a moment--take time out of my oh so busy schedule--to ponder something that has absolutely no pertinence to real life.
What is the difference between a geek, a nerd, and a dork?
I consider myself to be a nerd, but not necessarily a geek or a dork. However, if I do something really stupid, I feel that my behavior dips into dorkdom. A distinction between the three MUST exist, seeing as how I don't think of them as being synonymous, but when explicitly asked what the difference is between the three, I get stuck.
NERD: A person who values intelligence. A person who continually strives to further his or her knowledge of the world around them. The "knowledge" in question is almost exclusively limited to book knowledge. People with "street smarts," "business sense," or other more practical intelligences almost never fall under the NERD category.
GEEK: A nerd who specializes in technology-related knowledge. Video game geeks. Computer geeks. These people carry Palm Pilots, own every game console known to man, or live day to day with eyes glued to computer screens. Geekdom is a subset of nerdom, in my opinion. All GEEKS are NERDS, but not all NERDS are GEEKS. Hence, I am a NERD, but I am not computer-savvy enough to be a GEEK.
DORK: Has nothing to do with intelligence. "DORK" implies social retardedness. Being smart doesn't automatically make you socially retarded, but spending one's time buried in books can lead to dorkiness. Nerdiness and dorkiness do not share a causal relationship, but they are not mutually exclusive either. I don't think I am a DORK (most of the time), but that's probably up to you people to decide.
Then there are the NERD/DORK/GEEKS who transcend these generalizations and dive so deeply into fantastical fictional worlds that it boggles the minds of even the nerdiest of nerds. You know who you are. The Trekkies, the Star Woids, the comic book guy from the Simpsons. I simply don't understand you people and your desires to own a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Mr. Spock. Klingon is not a real language.
But hey, whatever floats your boat. Who's to say I'm not weird. After all, I wanted to have a party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA two years ago.
Currently reading: Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
Currently playing: nothing. I'm at school.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home