Why Nerds are Unpopular

[Blind Hemingway]

I found this to be an interesting read on the role of "politics" and "social hierarchy" in American Public High Schools.

1. Read this article: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

2. Do you agree with the Point of View of the author? Do you think there's more to it than the basic outline presented? For non-US residents, how do your high school's compare?

 

[Diana]

Nerds and Smart people are unpopular because they're jerks.

No, seriously. c___c They know they're smart and more intelligent than the average person. That boosts up their ego. They lord their smartness as a badge over the more popularly people. All that preppy-bashing, hating on jocks, etc, they always say they're more intelligent than them. They point at those others groups going "Well at least -I- know blahblahblah."

So of course they don't really want to be popular. Being popular means you're an idiot, and if you're an idiot, you can't lord your superior intelligence over other people. :/

 

[Tuxedo Mask]

I concur with Diana. And because some act that way all nerds become unpopular because of stereotypes.

 

[Pirogeth]

You two may define it like that but my school worked slightly different. Basically we had the four groups.

1. The popular kids that were either in athletics or had money.

2. The Mexican group that always seemed to hang out with each other.

3. The geek/nerd group consisting of people who were smart or people who played with cardboard.

4. The bad image group, the people at school that either trolled for attention or made scenes.

Given those four groups I obviously fit in #3. No group was overly dominant, in fact, if anything group 3 had the grasp over the school from Freshman to Junior year, then Senior year I believe the torch passed over to #1 because the magic group went away.

But it isn't necessarily the groups that hated on each other in the school more than it was the personalities of the people in the groups. There were the good ready to teach magic players in group 3 while there also were the asshole ones that had only the desire to win. (These types also played Halo and thought they were the most badass gamer in the school)

But to return to the article itself, yeah you had to work at being in one group or the other. I mean, to be in the "popular" group you had to find ways to make yourself look appealing and in essence become a fashion concious individual. Meanwhile, the nerd group had basic requirement of knowing either anime, manga, MTG, or being smart.

 

[Isabella Hime]

4. The bad image group, the people at school that either trolled for attention or made scenes.




I was one of those..

 

[Orochi]

True.

In my highschool, they gathered all the nerds and placed them together in the honors class(the ultranerds) and the semi-honors(lesser nerds). And 8 other sections of us normal guys.

Most of the people in the honors class became SUPER-INTROVERTS because they saw the same damn faces for 4 years while the rest of us got shuffled randomly.

By the time we're in our senior year, most of the semi's and some honors were accepted, some even have social lives.

I know a guy who intentionally let his grades down so he'd be part of the normal group, so he used his SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCY to slack around and not study while maintaining high grades(but always leaving 1 subject down to keep him from getting pulled back into the nerd sections). Then he offered his 'services' by making projects for peoples, used the cash to go out with chicks. Marvelous bastard, that man.

Interestingly enough, none our biggest losers came from the honors classes.

 

[Sakura]

I'm currently in a typical American highschool, with slightly higher academic standards than most, but I still see the stereotypes. The majority sticks with their own kind. Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, & Whites (I don't mean to be racist here :3).

And then there's the spluttering of the minority that sits with the people they like, mixing and matching. The thing is, there's no social boundaries in my school. Sure, if I'm a nerd and you're popular, if I go sit next to you or talk to you, you might be nice to me or you might ignore me, but neither of those reactions will be BECAUSE you're POPULAR and I'm a NERD. Those reactions will be entirely a basis of YOUR personality, not the stereotype, because majority here defies the personality-stereotypes.

But then again, not everyone does. Still, the overall feel of the school is one big entity of a melting pot. Sure, there's the Asians that don't really speak English or the Hispanics that don't want to talk to the Whites, but it's not forbidden territory. You can talk to whoever you want and however you want, regardless of who you are, and their reaction won't be the same as the reaction of someone similar to them in stereotypes. At least 70% of the time.

&& /coughcough/ I am a nerd. x3

I've always been irritated by the stereotype. In elementary school, it was great to be smart, but hard to be social when you were. The teachers loved you, but the students despised you. Back then, it was purely because they were annoyed or jealous or irritated by someone knowing more than them. You didn't need to show that you were smarter; kids just knew by knowing you.

In middle school, it was a greater pain, because everyone was trying to be all grown up and fashionable and preteen. So if you studied, you were obviously some kind of alienated dork. That's where it's hard, but important to find the right friends~ but you obviously won't get them the first time around. In high school, I guess nerd doesn't have the same connotations as it might have in a lesser academic school. Here, we don't call people by "nerd" unless we do it in a joke or affectionately. It's not wrong to be smart. It's the first time I've encountered such a theme in my schools, but it's nice~ even if it's only just a percentage of the school that feels this way.

Nerds and Smart people are unpopular because they're jerks...They know they're smart and more intelligent than the average person. That boosts up their ego. Being popular means you're an idiot, and if you're an idiot, you can't lord your superior intelligence over other people. :/

Why do you consider being popular means you're an idiot ?

I concur with Diana. And because some act that way all nerds become unpopular because of stereotypes.

Do you think nerds (I use the term lightly x3) could/would be able to surpass that stereotype in certain conditions?

...it was the personalities of the people in the groups.

But to return to the article itself, yeah you had to work at being in one group or the other. I mean, to be in the "popular" group you had to find ways to make yourself look appealing and in essence become a fashion concious individual. Meanwhile, the nerd group had basic requirement of knowing either anime, manga, MTG, or being smart.

So in your school, being in a particular group wasn't necessarily bad ?

4. The bad image group, the people at school that either trolled for attention or made scenes.

I was one of those..

And how was this group treated ?

True.
Most of the people in the honors class became SUPER-INTROVERTS because they saw the same damn faces for 4 years while the rest of us got shuffled randomly.

So, does it really depend on how the school treats the smart people ?

 

[Isabella Hime]

Originally Posted by Isabella Vokshava
4. The bad image group, the people at school that either trolled for attention or made scenes.

I was one of those..
And how was this group treated ?



I was the only one of that group.. I was lonely! Noone loved me!

 

[Pirogeth]

Your completely correct Sakura. No single group was classified as being "The Jerk" category. However, the bad image group was something to shy away from as they were always uper srs about being an asshole.

We shared more or less a balance between the three, but then again I was in the most popular one for 3 out of 4 years so I wouldn't precisely know if the others were looked down upon. I guess the thing that helped the best was that there was a teacher to each group.

For #1 there was our Gym Teachers aka Coach(es). Then there was the spanish teachers for #2 as well as the fact that half of them were related to each other. (Not trying to be rascist it is a fact.) Us Magic dudes/gamers had a kick ass Math teacher who also played Magic, dungeon and dragons, and a multitude of other inside games. He was of asian descent making the place feel more like the stomping grounds of the regular MTG hotspots.

Finally we come to #4...not exactly a great relationship but they did have one that kept their attitudes in check. It was with our school's Police Officer. Yeah kind of a weird one but I am absolutely sure this was important.

 

[Seiji]

My high school was an anomaly, I suppose.

The athletic "football" kids WERE the smart kids. If you were an athlete, you were also in the AP and Honors and IB classes.

Of course, I was in those classes too, I just wasn't very athletic.

I dunno what happened to me. I sat at what the author would describe as a "B" table most of the time. It was an extension of the A table, for the most part, but I sat towards the end, or with people I was (more) familiar with. In high school, I was just the loner... Not really a nerd, not popular, not really ostricized either. I wasn't really picked on, hell, I wasn't even NOTICED.

I was just a loner.

I didn't feel any kind of connection with those people, and I suppose in my head I invented ways in which made me better, or made me separate from them. I dunno what was going on in my head, but I tell you what: I'd so go back in time and kick myself in the junk and tell myself to open up.

I wish I could open up better now, to tell the truth...

 

[Sakura]

I wasn't really picked on, hell, I wasn't even NOTICED.

I was just a loner.

I didn't feel any kind of connection with those people, and I suppose in my head I invented ways in which made me better, or made me separate from them. I dunno what was going on in my head, but I tell you what: I'd so go back in time and kick myself in the junk and tell myself to open up.

Do you think, if you had opened up, it would've been different ?

 

[Warmaster Death]

my school was more groups of personalities.
almost everyone got along or didnt get along by their own merit.

sure freind groups had their joint hobbies, but that wasnt their defining attribute.

 

[Seiji]

I think that very much, Sakura.

I probably would have gone out with my two MAJOR crushes (9th and 10th grade year, Katie L. Then my 11th and 12th grade years, it was Emily B.).

I probably would have been confident enough in trying out for the Varsity Baseball team (I've played baseball since I was 9).

I also might still even have a lasting relationship of some kind. As it stands, I have ZERO communication with ANYONE I knew in high school. Makes me sad, truthfully.

Thankfully though, I DO have friends I've had for the majority of my life.

 

[Apocaric]

My HS was one where pretty much everyone fit into the Nerds/smart people group. To illustrate: I started a Magic: The Gathering revival in Sophomore. That's right - a revival. 70% of the school started bringing in decks and playing at lunch, before school, and on breaks. Note, they already OWNED the decks.

That's not to say I was one of the Popular subset. I was more of a loner, simply by virtue of the fact that I didn't give a rat's ass what people thought of me. In retrospect, that may have actually given me some pull with the folks who actually DID care...

 

[Diana]

Why do you consider being popular means you're an idiot ?

-I- don't. XD I know better. But while I was in High School, and even now when I hear people online bitching about "the populars" or "the preppies" ...Or even just watching TV and the way they play out the social stereotypes, the biggest insult you'll see is calling Popular people idiots. Idiots, Shallow, Etc.


One of my High School memories that still stands out to me is when this one Goth Girl (one of the girls that deliberately tried to be a part of that stereotype) was standing just down the hell and mocking me while I talked to this guy. c__c Exaggerating laughing while I was, mimicking hand movements. Basically making fun of the stupid preppy-acting girl! It really pissed me off cause she was just doing it because I was all "preppy" that week. She was very anti-prep anti popular people!


Anyways! XD My point is that most people assume the popular kids are shallow buttfaces, but the same thing is true for Nerds too. You see those nerds acting like they're better than you because they're smarter than you.

Of course the reality is that not everyone fits in perfectly to those stereotypes... but it's so common to make those assumptions because many people DO act like that. ._.

 

[Darkness]

Foreigner here, high school's a shitty thing if you're actually smart, that happens in all countries.