Real Talk: Nerds Versus Geeks

This seems to be a topic that people aren’t clear on, so I’m going to do my best to make it a bit less hazy on the similarities and differences of what it means to be a nerd versus a geek. Since it’s apparently trendy now to hold onto a label that used to be attached to someone you wanted to insult, I’m also going to get into what doesn’t fall into the realm of nerdhood and geekery. And, for the heck of it, I’ll use myself as an example to show how a person can be both.

1. What it means to be a Nerd:
   Know what I think is a lot of fun? School. Not even going to hold back on this one, but I love learning and participating in class. I take the time to learn the concepts and find ways to incorporate what I’ve been studying into my everyday life. Except for physics, since all I understood and retained from that class was that North is not “up”. Not only that, but I pride myself on being someone that can join in class discussions and have something to contribute to the conversation. I don’t consider going to lectures to be a chore, even if they are at 8:15 in the morning. I value education, yo.
2. What doesn’t constitute as being a Nerd:
   Your flannel shirt, high-waist jeans, and suspenders are not representative of your intelligence. Being quirky or having a beard, and wearing a pair of Raybans doesn’t reflect your ability to analyse post-post-modernist reflections of Molière. Can you recite five digits of pi? Can you differentiate between a credible and unreliable source? No – then find yourself a more fitting label.
3. What it means to be a Geek:
   Do you have a thing that you like? Do you know a lot about it? There you go, you can be categorised as a geek. Anything that can be followed or consumed can grant you geek status if you’ve invested enough time into it. Music, books, tv shows, sports (and not just Quidditch), musicals, movies, video games, art, photography, comic books – if you have a deep appreciation for it and have taken the time to learn more about it or participate in it, then you fall into its fandom and can call yourself an X-geek. You can usually spot us by our respective fandom’s paraphernalia. Don’t even get me started on the fan-fics.
4. What doesn’t constitute as being a Geek:
   When you call yourself a Harry Potter fan and have seen two of the movies. Saying you’re a trekkie because the one with the white dress and her hair in the big buns on the side of her head is your favourite. Pretending to like something (while either being clueless about it or straight up hating it) to impress someone. I’m pretty sure that you have something you can binge-watch or happily obsess over. Focus on that instead, because I can guarantee you’ll get more geek-rage than I’m already throwing your way if you say something like my above examples.
5. Where I stand:
   I care so much about school. So much. I’ve had teachers cut me off from answering questions on the first day of class. The difference here, is that I’m studying classes that I want to be in, so of course I’m going to invest time and energy into what I’m taking in from a given lecture. I also love Harry Potter (scroll back to early March if you don’t believe me). I’ve read the books in two languages more than once, I’ve seen all of the movies many times over, and I have all of the soundtracks and other various paraphernalia. You need a Potter Trivia partner? I’m your girl. But I’m also deep into other fandoms – and other media. For example, I will “watch” a movie just for its soundtrack, especially if it’s mostly an original score. Could I tell you who plays what instrument in a given piece from a certain movie? No. Nor would I be able to recognise every instrument or note by ear. I appreciate it, but I haven’t studied it. I also have a strange addiction to binge-watching Let’s Plays on youtube, despite my inability to play the video games myself.

What I’m trying to get across is that you have to work for these titles. It’s not something you’re born into (let’s not spark a nature versus nurture debate about this), but something that is entirely up to you to maintain. So if you say you’re a nerd, I will ask you how quickly you dry out a pen. And if you claim to be a geek, you should know that a tri-force isn’t shorthand for the original Star Wars trilogy.

Education (An Aside)

You shouldn’t have to suffer because you want to learn.

I think our system has fundamentally gone wrong in the fact that we put more importance on the answers you know to give than the questions you ask.

I’m a teacher and I’m not a fan of curriculum. The information is given to be taught in one way. You don’t fit that specific way of learning? Too bad, you fall behind, because we have to move on.

I refuse to see my students not get what I’m saying; I adapt how I teach based on who’s in class. I take the main theme of the day’s lesson, and I go with the flow of the group to get my message across. I’m lucky enough to have that flexibility since I teach a smaller group of kids, aged 11-13, in a Sunday school youth group.

I’m a student and I’m not a fan of curriculum. My least favourite thing to hear in class is:

“We don’t have enough time for more questions – we need to move on.”

I’m fine with visiting a professor outside of class time to ask my question. But I know that not everyone is willing to do that, which is unfortunate.

I love learning. I flip through textbooks at the beginning of the semester and read whole chapters if the content is interesting. I watch TEDtalks in my free time. Both fiction and nonfiction fill my home library. I’m not trying to come off as all high and mighty, I genuinely adore learning.

However, I don’t enjoy panic attacks and high levels of stress before a test. How can you fairly judge a group of individuals with various learning styles to be tested the same way? I thank my lucky stars that I know what my studying style is and how to prepare for a test, or else I might be in a very different place today.

Before every test, I jokingly say that it would be so much easier to take the test via interpretative dance. I’m not expecting an outlandish request like that to be fulfilled, but it wouldn’t be so awful if students had more options in how they could convey their knowledge. Schools make accommodations for students with specific needs or disabilities – what’s so difficult about fitting a student’s learning style?

I know full well that money, time, and bureaucracy all get in the way of the above, but isn’t school supposed to foster each of us to our highest potential – not weed out the weak and forget about them along the way?

I’m not in any way suggesting that we tear down the entire education institution- I just don’t see how a singular, standardised system should be a major factor in how your life turns out.