Nerds, Part 2: Nerds as difficult writing prompt

Well, the second half of my post on nerds is still looming over me like a playground bully, and guess how much progress I have made on it. None! This is what I get for making promises about a project I hadn't even started!

My initial idea was that I'd dig deep into the nebulous topic of what defines a nerd and how that definition has changed over time. My early experience with the term indicated that it was exclusively pejorative, but in my later years, I've come to sense a warmer tone to people's attitudes about nerds. Is that just because our world has become more friendly to those who are intellectual and socially awkward...or is it just something that happens naturally as you grow up?

Dictionaries can tell you the definition of "nerd," (generally speaking, a person with overly intellectual interests and little social ability), but they can't tell you the prevailing connotations of "nerd." That's something you can only learn from direct communication with other people. 

 

As I've been doing a lot of dating lately, I thought I'd poll my matches who identify as nerds (there are a surprisingly large number of them) about their feelings on the subject, and round up a consensus opinion.

Unfortunately, whenever I'd matched with a temptingly promising nerd, the conversation always dried up before I could manage to work it around to the topic of why he considered himself to be one. I'm now almost 2 months into this project, and I have yet to interrogate even one nerd! In retrospect, it was silly to expect myself, a self-proclaimed nerd, to accomplish much in an endeavor that requires successful social interaction with another self-proclaimed nerd! I suppose I could set up an anonymous poll someplace geeky like Reddit, but that sounds a lot like investigative journalism, and I'm not getting paid for this job!

So I stop here. I abdicate my responsibility for dissecting this topic, and I leave it to you, my beloved readers! What do you think makes a person a nerd? Is it cool to be a nerd, or is it still the worst insult a 7-year-old can come up with? Discuss. I believe you're up to the challenge...but only if you're nerdy enough!