There have always been social cliques for as long as I can remember. It’s been the only constant growing up that hasn’t altered completely. You find your group of people growing up as you go along grade school to college to the real world. The interactions of these groups may have been instrumental to your growth as a person and your perception of the world. You learn how specific cultures act and learn the truth behind the stereotypes. Now, I’ll be examining one of these cliques. From the name of this essay, it's obvious which one.
Nerd's used as a descriptive term, often used derogatively, indicating that a person is overly intellectual, obsessive, or socially impaired. There’s this ongoing stereotype that all nerds fit under this mold. As much as this definition may seem true, I have discovered that being a nerd is most definitely not a bad thing.
Originally I assumed that everybody I described as a nerd fell into this pool of ridiculously smart kids who knew everything about everything in this world. As cool as that would be, I figured out that their intellect fell into what they are most interested in. A nerd’s interest can range from academics to Japanese animation to the fantasy genre of books and movies.
We start with the academic nerd, the probably most common stereotyped nerd. Full of incorrect posture, nasally voices, and a severe lack of social skills. This sub-group of nerd focuses solely on school. They pride themselves of their knowledge in mathematics, history, science and the rest of the core. Generally, you would label these the 4.0 grade point average kids with the taped glasses. Ask them anything and you’re sure to get a more detailed response than wanted. Often believed as annoying with their constant sprout o...
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... aren’t bullied that are instead praised for their intelligence. As we evolve as a species, generations come and go and today’s generation is definitely more open-minded than the earlier. Nerds are possibly one of the greatest things to happen to the human race and it’s pretty obvious how much we’re truly going to need them in the long run.
There’s absolutely no reason to be ashamed of being a nerd. Though there are the common misconceptions, and the blunt but true stereotype for a considerable amount of nerds. They are the future of our race, striving to become more than what anyone else could become. Their focus on the details is what propels them to excellence and it’s a good reason to be proud. Watch as these people create the best new inventions or stories to be told. With an ambition just as strong as their obsessions, there is absolutely nothing they can’t do.
author Alexander Robbins states: “From the age of five children increasingly exclude peers who don’t conform to group norms. Children learn this quickly. A popular Indiana eighth grader told me ‘I have to be the same as everybody else, or people won’t like me anymore’” (150). The human brain is wired such that children will end friendships with kids that they find different. Robbins finds this behavior to be undesirable saying that it is not only unappealing, but it is a cop-out. In agreement with Robbins, parents across the world, organizations, and teen movies tell society that conformity is bad and that children should not conform to the group, rather they should stand alone and be individuals. However, Solomon Asch’s study may have discovered why this is. He concluded that: “The investigations described in this series are concerned with the independence and lack of independence in the face of group pressure” (1). Asch determines that in the face of pressure people are more apt to conform.
Recent studies show that high school students no longer only talk to, and/or become friends with the stereotypical cheerleader, jock, or band geek that they are, but rather look much farther than that. Maybe a quarterback does not understand his algebra class, and his nerd of a classmate wants to learn how to throw a perfect spiral for physics. Tradeoff. The quarterback asks the nerd to help him, and visa-versa. Wait a minute. They actually had fun together, and are now fr...
A lot of people think of nerds and think of people who wear glasses, don’t have many friends, aren’t good with social situations, don’t get in trouble, always getting good grades, and playing weird card and video games. It would be hard to classify everyone in the band as being a nerd though because like every other group it is a very diverse group of people to be a part of. There are people from different nationalities bringing the things that they like to do to the group and introducing new things to people. There are also your typical groups in band such as the drummers usually being the more athletic type, the guard girls being your more girly type, and so on. There are actually fewer nerds in band than you would
Close your eyes and try to visualize a black nerd. The person you’ve probably come up with most likely resembles Steve Urkel or Bill Cosby. But a better, more relevant answer would be someone like Kanye West or Rosario Dawson. Before, being a black nerd was something to be ashamed of because it was associated with being an outsider of the black community and acting white. However in recent years, the subculture has undergone a rebranding and being a black nerd has flowed into the mainstream through artists like Childish Gambino, Richard Ayoade, and Kanye West. This new generation of black nerds call themselves blerds. There is some controversy surrounding the word blerd because of its embrace of blackness and some people believe it is exclusionary.
American culture has evolved, and Society tends to ostracize people for their intelligence, and our culture has been giving these intellectuals derogatory names like nerd and geek. Leonid Fridman believes that these anti- intellectual values that pervade our society must be fought and should stop for the sake of America. The author supports this position in the passage “America Needs It’s Nerds” through the use of rhetoric by giving definitions of terms such as geek, offering comparisons through juxtaposition, adding a tone shift, and posing rhetorical questions to the reader.
As an individual stuck amidst a foundation known for its propensity to breed social congruity, college has opened my eyes to numerous distinctive reasons why individuals decide to act in ways they wouldn't regularly act. Since they ordinarily aren't certain of their character, adolescents are more inclined to similarity than others. In the most essential structure, college is tormented with congruity through the generalizations that learners seek after and explore different avenues regarding trying to uncover their personality. There are two sorts of Conformity: the kind that makes you do your errands when your father authorizes you to, and the less than great kind in which you aimlessly take after the thoughts and tenets of an inner circle or gathering, without addressing the negative impacts it has upon yourself and the improvement of whatever remains of public opinion. Conformity is basic in that people strive for a feeling of strength and acknowledgement in their lives. As a result of this need, “we therefore figure out how to fit in with principles of other individuals. What's more the more we see others carrying on in a certain manner or settling on specific choices, the more we feel obliged to stick to this same pattern.” Despite the freedoms we are supposed to have in American society most adolescents find it difficult to have their own identity.
As preteens and teens push for increasing independence from their parents, they tend to turn to their peers for guidance, acceptance, and security. For those who are low in self-esteem and confidence, their safety lies in fitting in and having a place to belong. Most people find a group in which they connect with in a healthy way while others make their way in cliques that give them security but at the price of their own values and individuality. The movie Mean Girls portrays how high school female social cliques operate and the effect they can have on girls. I will argue how if one doesn’t have a strong sense of self-identity, the opinions of others will become their identity.
Imagine that more than twenty years ago people didn’t even know about professional competitive gaming. They would never think that in the future eSport (electronic sport), would be growing up extremely fast. “Last year, tournaments awarded more than $15 million around the world, up from just over a $1 million a decade ago” (Holden 87) according to the statistics from the esportsearnings.com. Just think about it, the first place team can be guaranteed to get at least $1 million dollars, and this is the amazing amount of money for just playing the game. Now imagine that there several tournaments like that per year. Every competitive game has its own different tournaments. What if I told you that professional gaming organizations have a several teams and every player in the team is getting paid with a salary? People are getting paid only for just playing a game several hours per day. It’s not a secret that there already exist several professional gamers who already have become millionaires. The electronic sport is not an entertainment anymore; it has already became a professional environment that can give a career path for the people. It means that playing games is not a bad idea anymore. It shows that eSport has a future. The gamers not just nerds anymore because they are making more money than some employees can suggest to you. People of different ages are getting attracted by games and now they can make a profit from it. The competitive gaming has a lot of opportunities for players. It can suggest a career to the people now and not just a wasting of time for them. The eSport is raising an incredibly fast and the rise of the professional competitive gaming illustrates an approachable career path for gamers.
The first big one is the big jock that has everyone’s respect and struggles with being the leader. Another jock shown is your standard high school bully that terrorizes any and all. We have yet another Asian that coincidentally has the same name as the Asian girl, but they’re not related, and he like the average Asian excels in all of his classes and must overcome the wrath of his father to truly do what his dream is. Along with the Asian there is the nerd of the group that never is always “lucky” to get the bomb shell girl, and wears glasses collard button ups and happens to be in a wheel chair. Next we have the two overly flamboyant gay guys that fall madly in love with each other, and are always the girls’ best friends. At one point there was even an Irish dude that was referred to as the “leprechaun”. Just recently one of the newest stereotypes I’ve seen is that the obese new kid is simply lazy, doesn’t care, and has no athletic talent at all. The guys in Glee can also often be stereotyped just because of their gender. They are always shown as the sex driven males that have to keep up their tough guy attitude, and when they do become sensitive, it is a big
First, there is the “preppy” group. This is the group, for guys, that usually consists of faded or ripped-up jeans, a button-up shirt, usually tucked-in in the front, and spiked and frosted hair. And for girls, it’s all about the tight-fitting clothes. Usually a short skirt or tight jeans, accompanied by a smaller than normal shirt, and hair that’s been died or highlighted so many times that you can’t even tell what color it originally was supposed to be; but over everything, there is usually some bright, blonde highlights over the color of the month. As for the activities that “these people” partake in…they are usually more of the athletic types, you know…the stars of the football or track team. If this whole stereotype is at all “correct”, then there is a lot of that that I fall into. In high school (which, actually, is what I’m relating most of this to), I played a couple of different sports, and wasn’t too bad either. I wasn’t ever the “star”, but I started on the baseball team, and got plenty of minutes on the basketball team.
A type of stereotype in high school is the emo kid. Emo is not emotional if that were the case, everyone would be emo. Its short for emotive hardcore, a music genre that started in the 80s by a band in Washington D.C. Most people who believe that "emos" including emos themselves, commonly make this mistake another thing people think emoes do is that cut themselfs . This is not true. ¨A group at my school are emo, and they don't cut.¨ But it is a typical question they get asked by "popular" people.
If you were to walk into a high school lunchroom, what is the first thing you would see? Groups, cliques, friend circles, and separations. Tables split up in detached formations, almost completely unaware of the other surrounding pupils nearby. The most common groups in high school are the populars and the outcasts. The kids who have endless friends, engage in team sports, and meet the ideal teenage standards, against the ones who are quiet, solitary, and unconventional. The ones that are outcasts fall into the second description. They don’t line up with society's norms therefore, they tend to be looked upon as bizarre and atypical. Outsiders are too often misjudged and misunderstood
Geek; “an overly diligent, unsociable student; any unsociable person obsessively devoted to a particular pursuit” (Oxford English dictionary). In today’s dictionary the word geek can have both a positive, as well as a negative definition, neither of which is related to its original meaning. People have the tendency to alter these words and their connotation to accommodate their verbal slang. While many believe they have a clear understanding of the word geek, they lack the comprehension of its root and true meaning, as well as their mode of application.
The second group, known campus-wide, is the nerds because they are obsessed with books, constantly studying and learning about their interests. The nerds are usually annoying with their obnoxious laughter regarding a really stupid joke. The nerds wear a nice shirt with a bow tie, or a tie and a nicely ironed dress pants and always has a pocket protector to prevent ink stains from their pens. The nerd spends their school night with a tight schedule for recreation, school homework, and learning new things that captures their interests. Computer programming, calculator programming, the biology of their pet frog are some of the common things that interests the nerds.
In this society, both introverts and extroverts may feel different as that lack the valued characteristics of the other group. Introverts may be criticized for their lack of social participation as they tend to be over stimulated and overwhelmed when attempting to follow the pace of extroverted peers. Extroverts on the other hand would feel impatient and lonely when energizing situations are not available to them. In conclusion, being an introvert doesn’t make one more inferior than extroverts, both traits are needed in order for a well-balanced society. Regardless of what personality trait you may have, it is important to nurture your own type of personality and adjusting to life as one’s life path should be measured according to your own purpose and values, not external achievements.