A nerd is a person seen as overly

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

, obsessive,

introverted Extraversion and introversion are a central trait dimension in human personality theory. The terms were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung, though both the popular understanding and current psychological usage are not the same as Jung's o ...

, or lacking

social skills A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socia ...

. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly technical, abstract, or relating to niche topics such as

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Additionally, many so-called nerds are described as being shy, quirky,

pedant Pedantry ( ) is an excessive concern with formalism, minor details, and rules that are not important. Etymology Pedantry is the adjective form of the 1580s English word pedant, which meant a male schoolteacher at the time. The word pedant orig ...

ic, and

unattractive Unattractiveness or ugliness is the degree to which a person's Human physical appearance, physical features are considered aesthetically unfavorable. Terminology Ugliness is a property of a person or thing that is unpleasant to look upon and re ...

. Originally

derogatory A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility ...

, the term "nerd" was a

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

, but as with other

pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...

s, it has been

reclaimed Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ...

and redefined by some as a term of pride and group identity. The term may be considered a synonym for

geek The word ''geek'' is a slang term originally used to describe Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In th ...

Etymology

The first documented appearance of the word ''nerd'' is as the name of a creature in

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel ( ;"Seuss"
'' If I Ran the Zoo'' (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a

Seersucker Seersucker, hickory stripe or railroad stripe is a thin, puckered, usually cotton fabric, commonly but not necessarily striped or chequered, used to make clothing for hot weather. The word originates from the Persian words and , literally me ...

too" for his imaginary zoo.American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, p. 1212, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston – New York – London, 1992. The

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

meaning of the term dates to 1951. That year, ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for ''

drip Drip, The Drip, or DRIP may refer to: * Drop (liquid) Biology and medicine * Intravenous therapy * Vitamin D receptor interacting protein (DRIP) * Mesomycetozoea, a class of eukaryotes (also known as ''DRIP clade'') * Murphy drip, in proctocl ...

'' or ''

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

'' in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland. At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude. An alternate spelling, as ''nurd'' or ''gnurd'', also began to appear in the mid-1960s, or early 1970s. Author Philip K. Dick claimed to have coined the "nurd" spelling in 1973, but its first recorded use appeared in a 1965 student publication at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

(RPI).

Oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

there holds that the word is derived from ''knurd'' (''

drunk Alcohol intoxication, commonly described in higher doses as drunkenness or inebriation, and known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, is the behavior and physical effects caused by recent consumption of alcohol. The technical term ''intoxication ...

'' spelled backwards), which was used to describe people who studied rather than partied. The term ''gnurd'' (spelled with the "g") was in use at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) by the year 1965. The term "nurd" was also in use at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as early as 1971. According to ''

Online Etymology Dictionary Etymonline, or ''Online Etymology Dictionary'', sometimes abbreviated as OED (not to be confused with the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', which the site often cites), is a free online dictionary that describes the etymology, origins of English la ...

'', the word is an alteration of the 1940s term "''nert''" (meaning "stupid or crazy person"), which is in itself an alteration of "

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed * Nut (food), a dry and edible fruit or seed, including but not limited to true nuts * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut, NUT or Nuts may also refer to: A ...

" (nutcase). The term was popularized in the 1970s by its heavy use in the

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marsha ...

''. On January 28, 1978, recurring characters The Nerds premiered on Saturday Night Live. The term was further popularized in the 1984 film ''

Revenge of the Nerds ''Revenge of the Nerds'' is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley, and Bernie Casey. The plot follows a group of nerds at the fictional Adams College trying to st ...

''.

Culture and perception

Stereotype

Intellect and alleged nerdiness

Because of the nerd stereotype, many intelligent people are often thought of as nerdy. This belief can be harmful, as it can cause high-school students to "switch off their lights" out of fear of being branded as a nerd, and cause otherwise appealing people to be considered nerdy simply for their intellect. It has been argued that intellectuals are automatically nerdy because they were secretly envied, arrogant, or out of touch. However, Paul Graham stated in his essay, "Why Nerds are Unpopular", that intellect is neutral, meaning that many high school students neither admire nor deride classmates for intelligence itself. He also states that it is only the correlation that makes smart teens automatically seem nerdy, and personally defines a nerd as someone deemed not socially adept enough. Additionally, he says that the reason why many smart kids are unpopular is that they "don't have time for the activities required for popularity," since they instead prioritize intellectual, solitary pursuits, at the cost of being branded as "nerds." He also goes on to criticize suburbia and the public education system for enabling a popularity contest.

Stereotypical "nerd" appearance and fashion

Stereotypical nerd appearance, often lampooned in

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

s, can include very large

glasses Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically u ...

dental braces Dental braces (also known as orthodontic braces, or simply braces) are devices used in orthodontics that align and straighten Human tooth, teeth and help position them with regard to a person's bite, while also aiming to improve dental health. The ...

, buck teeth, severe

acne Acne ( ), also known as ''acne vulgaris'', is a long-term Cutaneous condition, skin condition that occurs when Keratinocyte, dead skin cells and Sebum, oil from the skin clog hair follicles. Typical features of the condition include comedo, ...

and

pants Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants (American English, American, Canadian English, Canadian and Australian English) are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separatel ...

worn high at the waist. Following suit of popular use in emoticons, Unicode released in 2015 its "Nerd Face" character, featuring some of those stereotypes: 🤓 (code point U+1F913). In the media, many nerds are males, portrayed as being physically unfit, either

overweight Being overweight is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary. , excess weight reached epidemic proportions globally, with more than ...

or skinny due to lack of physical exercise.Lori Kendall. "OH NO! I'M A NERD!": Hegemonic Masculinity on an Online Forum. ''Gender Society''. 14: 256. (2000)

The stereotype across race and gender

It has been suggested by some, such as linguist

Mary Bucholtz Mary Bucholtz (born 29 October 1966) is a professor of linguistics at UC Santa Barbara. Bucholtz's work focuses largely on language use in the United States, and specifically on issues of language and youth; language, gender, and sexuality; Africa ...

, that being a nerd may be a state of being "hyperwhite" and rejecting

African-American culture African-American culture, also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English, refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. African-American/Bl ...

and slang that "cool" white children use. However, after the ''

'' movie franchise (with multicultural nerds), and the introduction of the

Steve Urkel Steven Quincy Urkel is a fictional character on the American ABC/CBS sitcom '' Family Matters'', portrayed by Jaleel White. Originally slated for a single appearance, he broke out to be the show's most popular character, gradually becoming it ...

character on the television series ''

Family Matters ''Family Matters'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC for eight seasons from September 22, 1989, to May 9, 1997, then moved to CBS for its ninth and final season from September 19, 1997, to July 17, 1998. A spin-of ...

'', nerds have been seen in all races and colors as well as more recently being a frequent young East Asian or Indian male stereotype in North America. Portrayal of "nerd girls", in films such as ''

She's Out of Control ''She's Out of Control'' is a 1989 American independent coming of age comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti, starring Tony Danza, Ami Dolenz and Catherine Hicks. The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri. The film was marketed with ...

'', ''

Welcome to the Dollhouse ''Welcome to the Dollhouse'' is a 1995 American coming-of-age black comedy film written and directed by Todd Solondz. An independent film, it won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and launched the careers of Solondz and H ...

'' and ''

She's All That ''She's All That'' is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Robert Iscove. It stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Kieran Culkin and Anna Paquin. After being dumped b ...

'' depicts that smart but nerdy women might suffer later in life if they do not focus on improving their

physical attractiveness Physical attractiveness is the degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetics, aesthetically pleasing or beauty, beautiful. The term often implies sexual attraction, sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be d ...

. In the United States, a 2010 study published in the ''Journal of International and Intercultural Communication'' indicated that

Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans with Asian diaspora, ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are Immigration to the United States, immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). A ...

are perceived as most likely to be nerds, followed by

White Americans White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person hav ...

, while non-White

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

s and

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

were perceived as least likely to be nerds. These stereotypes stem from concepts of

Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...

and

Primitivism In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...

, as discussed in Ron Eglash's essay "Race, Sex, and Nerds: From Black Geeks to Asian American Hipsters".

Psychosocial conditions

Some of the stereotypical behaviors associated with the "nerd" stereotype have correlations with the traits of

Asperger syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome or Asperger's, is a diagnostic label that has historically been used to describe a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and no ...

or other

autism spectrum Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

conditions.

Pride

Some measures of "nerdiness" are now considered desirable by many commentators. To some, "nerd" suggests a person who is intelligent, respectful, interesting, dedicated, individualistic, and able to earn a large salary doing what they love. Stereotypical nerd qualities are evolving, going from awkwardness and

social ostracism Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes ''interpersonal rejection'' (or peer rejection), ''romantic rejection'', and ''familial estrangement''. A pe ...

to an allegedly more widespread acceptance and sometimes even celebration of their differences. Many so-called "nerdy people" have accumulated large fortunes, and many are able to find their niche in the American

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

industry, concentrated in California's

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, the Greater

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

area (working for companies like

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

), and the

Silicon Slopes Silicon Slopes is a term that describes the part of Utah, in the western United States, that is a major economic center for technology and innovation businesses. Centered on the cities of Salt Lake City and Provo and their surrounding suburbs ...

. These engineers and programmers have influenced popular culture in many ways, caught the attention of the media, and effectively designed a new category of everyday objects. Being adept with computers, often considered a "nerdy" interest, is now widespread and even an expectation in professional and academic spaces. Many celebrities in the first decade of the

2000s File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty on the left during the September 11 attacks, terrorist attacks on Sep ...

publicly expressed interest in smartphones and other handheld devices. Similarly, many stereotypical "nerdy" interests, such as

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

tabletop RPG A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

franchises, and

and

works, are now international popular culture hits.

Johannes Grenzfurthner Johannes Grenzfurthner (; born 1975 in Vienna) is an Austrian artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, curator, theatre director, performer and lecturer. Grenzfurthner is the founder, conceiver and artistic director of ''monochrom'', an international ar ...

, researcher, self-proclaimed nerd and director of nerd documentary ''

Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are diagnostic command-line interface commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The command reports the round-trip times of ...

'', reflects on the emergence of nerds and nerd culture: In the 1984 film ''

'',

Robert Carradine Robert Reed Carradine ( ; born March 24, 1954) is an American actor. A member of the Carradine family, he made his first appearances on television Western series such as ''Bonanza'' and his brother David's TV series, ''Kung Fu''. Carradine's fi ...

worked to embody the nerd stereotype; in doing so, he helped create a definitive image of nerds. Additionally, the storyline presaged, and may have helped inspire, the "nerd pride" that emerged in the late 1990s. ''

American Splendor ''American Splendor'' is a series of autobiographical comic books written by Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the last one in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular interv ...

'' regular

Toby Radloff Toby Radloff (born December 12, 1957) is a former file clerk and actor who became a minor celebrity owing to his appearances in Cleveland writer Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comic book series '' American Splendor''. Radloff has a distinctive ...

claims this was the movie that inspired him to become "The Genuine Nerd from

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

". In the ''American Splendor'' film, Toby's friend, ''American Splendor'' author

Harvey Pekar Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical ''American Splendor'' comic series. In 2003, the series inspired ...

, was less receptive to the movie, believing it to be hopelessly idealistic, explaining that Toby, an adult low income file clerk, had nothing in common with the middle class kids in the film who would eventually attain college degrees, success, and cease being perceived as nerds. Many, however, seem to share Radloff's view, as "nerd pride" has become more widespread in the years since.

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

professor

Gerald Sussman Gerald Jay Sussman (born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been involved in artificial intelligence (AI) research at MIT since 1964. His research ha ...

, for example, seeks to instill pride in nerds:

Bullying

Individuals who are labeled as "nerds" are often the target of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

due to a range of reasons that may include physical appearance or social background. Paul Graham has suggested that the reason nerds are frequently singled out for bullying is their indifference to popularity or social context, in the face of a youth culture that views popularity as paramount. However, research findings suggest that bullies are often as socially inept as their academically better-performing victims, and that popularity fails to confer protection from bullying. Other commentators have pointed out that pervasive harassment of intellectually-oriented youth began only in the mid-twentieth century.

In popular culture

White & Nerdy "White & Nerdy" is the second single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album '' Straight Outta Lynwood'', which was released in 2006. It parodies the song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone. The song both satirizes and celebrates nerd culture, ...

" by

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

, a parody of the song "

Ridin' "Ridin is a song by American rapper Chamillionaire featuring fellow American rapper Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, released on November 12, 2005, as the second single from his debut studio album '' The Sound of Revenge'' (2005). Produce ...

" by

Chamillionaire Hakeem Temidayo Seriki (born November 28, 1979), better known by his stage name Chamillionaire (), is an American rapper. He began his career in Houston's hip hop scene in the late 1990s. He was briefly signed with the local record label Swishah ...

ft.

Krayzie Bone Anthony Henderson (born June 17, 1973), better known as Krayzie Bone, is an American rapper. He is a member of the hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Career Solo After finding success with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Krayzie Bone recorded his so ...

, prominently features and celebrates aspects of nerd culture. *

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories on science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site ...

uses the

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...

"News for nerds. Stuff that matters." * Charles J. Sykes wrote "Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them." This quotation, as well as the passage it was taken from, has been popularized on the Internet in the 2000s. It has occasionally been incorrectly attributed to

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

. *In Spain, Nerd Pride Day has been observed on May 25 since 2006, the same day as Towel Day, another somewhat nerdy holiday. The date was picked as it is the anniversary of the release of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

''. *Australian events such as Oz Comic-Con (a large

and

cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

convention, similar to

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

) and Supernova, are incredibly popular events among the culture of people who identify themselves as nerds. In 2016, Oz Comic-Con in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

saw almost 20,000 cosplayers and comic book fans meet to celebrate the event, hence being named a "professionally organised

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

for geeks". *Fans of the

Vlogbrothers Vlogbrothers (sometimes stylized as VlogBrothers or vlogbrothers) is a video blog channel on YouTube. The Internet-based show is created and hosted by the Green brothers: John and Hank. The first incarnation of the brothers' online broadcasting ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel starring

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and

Hank Green William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American YouTuber, science communicator, novelist, Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, and entrepreneur. He produces the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, a ...

) call themselves "nerdfighters" and refer to the fan base as a whole as "Nerdfighteria".

References

External links

*
The Well-Dressed Geek: Media Appropriation and Subcultural Style
(Paper by Jason Tocci presented at the MIT5 conference. PDF, 180kb).

an essay by Paul Graham about the conformist society in American high schools.
"The Nerds Have Won"
an article by Brian Hayes in ''American Scientist,'' September–October 2000. {{Authority control Academic culture Anti-intellectualism Computing culture English-language slang Nerd culture, Intelligence Internet culture Epithets related to nerd culture Stereotypes Stock characters Subcultures Social class subcultures 1950s neologisms