Why nerds are unpopular?
paulgraham.com
paulgraham.com
Nerds weren't unpopular in school because they were actually even cooler than everyone else, and didn't want to waste their time stooping to everyone else's debased level of communication and friendship. That's an absurd fantasy.
Nerds are unpopular in forced social settings like secondary schools because they're huge assholes, the kind of people that even 25 years later write essays about how really it was everybody else's fault that nobody got along with them.
Very few nerds come to understand this, the only media I've seen that gets it right was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion_(30_Rock)
Um.... no more than the rest of the human race. You're going to have to have some heavy-weight citations there.
The fact that nerds are often more provably right than the fundies doesn't make it less annoying for those around them who aren't nearly as excited by strange doings with quark-gluon plasma and the minutia of decades-old television reruns. You can be right all you like, it doesn't mean anyone else cares.
But my limited understanding of societies confirms one of his central point: being social requires a lot of effort, being popular is a full-time job.
Attitude has very little to do with it, I have lost count on how many people I've met who are both assholes and funny/charming.
School is a forced social setting, because they government makes it mandatory. The quality of teaching is pathetic, and kids are often bored out of their wits and given no direction.
So what do you EXPECT to happen? Obviously a bunch of bored, totally uneducated, confused and bewildered individuals will try to bond with others and identify with a group/clique, primarily out of fear.
So the athletes form a group, the druggies form a group and the nerds form a group. But because they're all forced together into these artificial "classes", with absent-minded teachers, they have problems getting on with eachother and the less popular ones get ostracised.
If parents could choose where to school their children, if schools had to compete for customers like any other business, if teachers taught students properly and methodically, starting with basic laws of logic, the situation would be better.
For one thing, youngsters would have greater self-esteem, and thus, could stand on their own much earlier, rather than defining themselves by their group/tribe.
Also nerdy children could go to nerdy schools, where their talents could be appreciated and encouraged. Imagine how many more genuises could rise if they grew up in an atmosphere of encouragement and cooperation rather than hostility.
I'm not saying nerds are "cooler" than everyone else. Cool is totally subjective.
But if we had a private school system and better teachers, life would be easier for everyone, including nerds.
The reason I loved the workforce so much, when I finally got into it, was that I had some choice in which companies I worked for, and I was able to strive for real-world objective goals, rather than being lumped into a random group of people, without any aim goal or direction.
You mean like privately-run British boarding schools? I think you'll find bullying is even worse in those kind of environments. Look up "fagging" on Wikipedia.
No, they're unpopular because western society tends to reward athletic prowess and has a stigma against intellectualism. They're unpopular because they are not seen to be "alpha males".
Having interests and vocabularies that are alienating to people who struggle to keep up can often do just that.
Even 'dumb' people can smell a douche from a mile away. Probably better than the socially ill-equipped "nerds".
> Nerds are unpopular in forced social settings like secondary schools because they're huge assholes, the kind of people that even 25 years later write essays about how really it was everybody else's fault that nobody got along with them.
Get over your grudges, seriously. I bet the people who used to make fun of you don't even remember why. They'll run into you someday in the grocery store and go "Hey man, what's up? How's life?" Now you can either make a new friend, or stay in middle school where you still get picked on for your terrible social skills.