Just thinking about how times have changed. In the 80s nerds were social pariahs with interests in fringe things like fantasy/sci-fi, comic books, video games.
Take a look at my (fellow foreign) coworkers:
Adam (Australian) likes fishing, WoW, UFC, sci-fi movies and reads Lovecraft and anything post-apocalyptic.
Ryan (New Zealand) likes hard sci-fi and cyberpunk, plus lots of obscure literature, plays drums in a band and brews his own beer.
Matt (USA) loves rock climbing, fantasy lit, is quite the artist and watches anything sci-fi/fantasy on TV or at the movies.
Myself (USA) I like RPGs, comic books, fantasy and sci-fi books, TV and film, video games and the like.
Matthieu (Canada) likes hockey, South Park, and hanging out drinking.
Yes, no surprise I am the "nerdiest" of the bunch. At least as far as hobbies and interests go. But except for Matthieu, everyone else has a fairly high interest in nerdy things. Whenever we talk about A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones TV show, and mention King's Landing, Matthieu always without fail thinks we are talking about a Canadian amusement park.
So what has all this blather about coworkers got to do with anything? Well it's just the observation of that other part of "nerdiness," social awkwardness. Matthieu is by far the most socially awkward of us all. He's a real nice guy and all, but he doesn't quite click in social situations. In the year I've known him he hasn't had a girlfriend. Matt has one, the rest of us are married.
Now, I'm not trying to steroetype anyone. I'm commenting on the breaking of steroetypes.
All five of us are "nerds" in one sense or another. But most nerdy things thesedays have become pretty darned mainstream. And the most socially awkward guy in a group can be the jock who just likes to play sports and go out drinking.
Interesting times we live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment