Why nerds are unpopular

[Nubclear]

He is right that it is an American problem, by the way

Hehe, stupid Americans....

[Dis]

:whew:

finished reading all of that . I'm a slow reader.

OK I didn't agree with how much work it takes to become popular. I still believe being popular is all about looks and social and/or athletic skils.

But the last 3/4 of the article is much better indeed. I think he is write on on the causes of this social situation in middle/high school. I agree completely.

And he mentioned some fixes. He also mentioned specialization. Well there is the answer. Specialist schools. I think kids can realize what they are good at an early age. And if they are wrong they can always change schools. I think specialist schools should be set up. I don't agree with throwing everyone in one class/school. The problem as I see it is that we do live in an specialized society. Yet the school system is designed only for general education. Administrators are probably scared to change for fear of "locking" kids in a path in life. But I think this would work. You would see a lot less kids enter college with no major. I have heard of kids close to graduation with no major . That is an obvious problem if you ask me.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Why nerds are unpopular

Originally posted by Stefu

http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Yes, it's long, but I found it quite interesting.

Stop copying threads from the Straight Dope Message Board, would you, Stefanie?

[Dis]

what is straight dope?

This is a good thread.

[Urban Ranger]

Okay, I am going to say the same thing here.

One of the defining characteristics of "nerds" is they don't have social skills, or perhaps downright anti-social. That's why they are unpopular.

[Dis]

I'm inclined to believe you. But I still feel "nerd" schools would be beneficial. Sure some nerds are more popular than others. But it would still be better than going to a general school And nerd schools could be broken down into say math, science, engineering, and computers. Sure you use computers in all 3. But the computer ones would focuse exclusively on construction, operation, programming, repair etc.

But it's safe to say they wouldn't have a very good football team

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
He is right that it is an American problem, by the way

Hehe, stupid Americans....

Are you retarded? Do you think bullying is only an American problem? Too bas it's not possible to reduce your age and throw you into the Japanese school system.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Okay, I am going to say the same thing here.

One of the defining characteristics of "nerds" is they don't have social skills, or perhaps downright anti-social. That's why they are unpopular.

I think the point the author is making is that they don't have the time or inclination to develop social skills, instead recognizing that it's all a silly game on some unconscious level. I don't think that's quite correct.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Dissident
what is straight dope?

This is a good thread.

The Staight Dope was a column started by a certain Cecil Adams in a Chicago newspaper aeons ago. There have been a few compilations of his columns and now there is a website for it. This is the BBS section.

I am surprised that you haven't heard of The Straight Dope.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man
I think the point the author is making is that they don't have the time or inclination to develop social skills, instead recognizing that it's all a silly game on some unconscious level. I don't think that's quite correct.

Of course it is not correct. Not having time is a bad excuse, and not having the inclination is just as bad. Basically it is an attitude problem.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Basically it is an attitude problem.

It seems if it was an attitude problem, they'd be cooler

[loinburger]

The nerds at my school weren't necessarily the smart kids, they were just the obnoxious kids with no social skills -- their lack of social skills was generally compounded by their overwhelming arrogance (their feeling of intellectual superiority). They were picked on, but by-and-large they brought it upon themselves, and I had little pity for them.

Many of the smart kids were preppies, or theater freaks, or band fags, or jocks, or quiet shy introverted kids, or anything in between -- the people who graduated in the top seven of my class consisted of two preppies, one preppy/introvert, one nerd, one introvert/jock, one introvert, and a theater freak. The nerd was picked on, the other six were not.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by loinburger
The nerds at my school weren't necessarily the smart kids, they were just the obnoxious kids with no social skills -- their lack of social skills was generally compounded by their overwhelming arrogance (their feeling of intellectual superiority). They were picked on, but by-and-large they brought it upon themselves, and I had little pity for them.

I think we have a definition issue here... to me, they're all nerds - but I think the author was labelling as 'nerds' only the smart, socially awkward kids. The deliberately obnoxious ones (such as your correspondent) get another label, presumably.

[loinburger]

He was using "nerd" for the smart kids who were picked on. At my school, the smart kids who were picked on were all obnoxious arrogant bastards. The smart kids who weren't picked on were introverts/preppies/jocks/band fags/theater freaks/whatever.

[Urban Ranger]

There's an interesting view in the SDMB thread. The author reckons that it is the girls who are forming the strata in schools. This seems to hold true with my own experience. I went to one of the best secondary school here which is an all-boys school. We were pretty much some of the brightest kids in the city, yet I didn't notice any problem with a group being singled out and picked on.