Nerds are people, too.–David Bernstein
I am a nerd. Now, I don’t have coke-bottle glasses, I don’t even have contacts. I don’t wear my pants up to my nipples, or wear suspenders. I am not pasty and I do have many friends, but I am someone with an insatiable lust to get the newest, greatest computer parts and to push them as far as they’ll go – at home.
In my high school, I am understandably less ostentatious about my nerdliness; seeing the skinny, pasty kid with the “Blizzard/Diablo” Tee Shirt get absolutely shunned put a damper on my “coming out of the nerd closet”, so to speak. Now what bothers me here is that nerds, and other technologically inclined are pariahs, in youth culture.
Sure, adults realize nerds make money, but too many geeks spend their youth looking towards the day when they can escape the youth world. Nerds, geeks, dorks, all receive more ill-will than minorities, gays, or other people that aren’t “normal” (I use that word loosely). Not that I want minorities to be treated worse – absolutely not – but
I think that nerds should have their own “civil-rights movement”.
This is very difficult to orchestrate, as adults have no need for it, but we students need this to happen. I make this vow:
I vow that I will no longer make an effort to hide my love for computers and technology. I shall endeavor to make the image of the technophile more palatable to youth culture through my actions. This may or may not include, based on one’s situation, being more sociable, seeking to educate one’s peers, and offering my services to companions in need of technological help.
In Microsoft we mis-trust, amen!
I hope all technophiles understand what I mean, and attempt to put this in action.
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