When can you no longer legitimately call yourself a "Nerd"?

[2D8HP]

Maybe these questions would better fit in "Friendly Banter" but since they relate to media use I'll put them here:

Someone asked me for movie recommends recently and I realized a big difference between what were my favorite newish films back in the '80's, and the newish films I like now.

In trying to remember what my favorite movies that were made within the last 20 years back when I was 17 I think my list would've been:

Alien

At the Earth's Core

Blade Runner

Brazil

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Destroyer

Dark Star

Dragonslayer

The Empire Strikes Back

Escape from New York

Excalibur

Ghostbusters

Hardware Wars

The Hobbit (the '77 cartoon version)

The Island at the Top of the World

The Land That Time Forgot

Logan's Run

The Lord of the Rings (the '78 cartoon version)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Repo Man

The Road Warrior

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

Star Wars

Time Bandits

Wizards

The Wrath of Khan

So mostly "genre" films.

In contrast my list for "films made in the last twenty years that I remember liking" is now much shorter, and far less "genre":

Atonement

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Hot Fuzz

Locke

Moonrise Kingdom

'71

Tropic Thunder

Twentieth Century Women

I similar thing with music, I have a huge number (hundreds) of pre '90's punk and new wave songs that I like, but of songs recorded within the the 20 years that I remember liking the only one that comes to my mind is Poor and Weird by The Briefs, which was recorded in 2000.

So...

...once a "nerd" always a nerd?

Can nerdlines be lost?

Is nerd "cred" from decades ago still good?

What should I consider my identity now?

(I'm guessing "old" and "square" now).

[Psyren]

My personal view is that if you haven't found anything modern that you like, you likely haven't been looking hard enough. Sturgeon's Law hasn't gone anywhere of course, but geeky properties (by which I mean genre fiction, chiefly the sci-fi/fantasy arms of that) are better than they've ever been in my opinion.

(Of course, a big part of that may be my happiness with big-budget properties realizing the importance of things like diversity and representation, but the baseline quality has risen for other reasons I've touched on in other threads - such as showrunners no longer having to worry about factors like primetime slot or creating X episodes to fill out a season or DVD release.

I've been told I have an "old soul" and indeed I'm a fan of most of the properties on your "old" list. (Well, maybe not the 70s animation stuff, I appreciate it for what it was but I do think animation in particular has made big strides in the modern era, and COVID is likely to improve that even further.) But Rocky Horror, Alien, Blade Runner, Conan, Star Wars 4&5, and Wrath of Khan among others on your list remain classics in my eyes.

[Lord Raziere]

Never.

Societal/trendy definitions of things are nonsensical, transient and ultimately pointless.

Define yourself however you want to make yourself happy and ignore all things that try to tear it down. People who try to define you otherwise and quibble over such things are nothing but jerks who you should not listen to.

[Giggling Ghast]

Nerds can't like Tropic Thunder and Hot Fuzz? Reddit would disagree.

However, based on the films you've listed, it sounds you've evolved into what's known as a "quirky hipster." Time to trade in your old comics/trading cards/gamebooks for a collection of vinyl records, a set of non-prescription glasses, and a subscription to Vice.

[BeerMug Paladin]

I'm not sure the nerd label makes a lot of sense as an identity. Didn't it get reappropriated from its original use as an offensive label? I understand that stuff like that happens with labels now and then, as cultures change across generations, but as someone who was often lumped in with the nerds, I didn't actually watch or really like any of the nerd media that existed when I was younger. (Nor does the prospect of watching it now particularly enamor me.)

Tastes just change over time. When you first saw a lot of those genre movies, they might have done things well that you hadn't seen done before at the time. But now that you've seen more examples of every genre, not only have you a wider base of past experiences to compare new entries to, but you also don't have the salve of nostalgia to recall those newer movies with alongside the old. It's therefore harder for newer stuff to make the same impression as older stuff.

I can only really speak for myself, but I think my tastes have changed a little over time. I tend to be overall a little less focused on what I expect genre fiction to be. And I think I'm a bit more engaged with elements of artistry than I used to be, themes, cinematography, all that. Because there's so much genre fiction I've seen now, I view things differently than I used to.

For example, I'm not sure if I would have appreciated the movie Arrival if I had seen it when I was younger. The accuracy of its science would have probably been my main takeaway from it. I would have probably focused my attention on that aspect, completely missing the actual story.

Nerd culture seems more like a blockbuster marketing sort of thing now than it is anything really descriptive.

[Vinyadan]

Wouldn't that be your Geek license, rather than the Nerd one?

[Vahnavoi]

The question implies "nerd" was a legitimate identity to begin with, which is dubious. It's an insult that some people started wearing as a badge of honor, which then diluted its meaning to the point I'm not sure what it is supposed to mean anymore.

[Knaight]

There's an extent to which the clustering of different interests that all got labeled as nerdy have been declustered. That said in your specific case I'm pretty sure that if you want to call yourself a nerd being on a webforum for a webcomic based more than a little in D&D qualifies all by its lonesome.

[2D8HP]

Wouldn't that be your Geek license, rather than the Nerd one?

I wasn't much aware of "Geek" as a label back in the '80's/when I was a teenager.

It's sort of like "mosh-pit" instead of "slam" or "thrash", a newer nomenclature that I wasn't inculcated with as much.

[Peelee]

2D8HP, you'll always be a nerd in my heart.

[2D8HP]

you'll always be a nerd in my heart.

Ah, that's so sweet!

[Narkis]

I don't see why you're conflicted. I mean, you still like everything you liked when you were 17 and unequivocally a nerd. You also like some more different stuff now, but that doesn't negate the first point. At worst, this would make you a sort of nerd+.

[snowblizz]

So...

...once a "nerd" always a nerd?

Can nerdlines be lost?

Actually, yea I think it can. At some point what you nerd about becomes so widespread it occasions no comment. Then you are no longer a nerd.
10-20 years ago if you were deep into GoT, or ASoIF as oyu would have known it, you were a nerd. Today, you are just current.

Is nerd "cred" from decades ago still good?

If stored properly it can age well. Just like a wine however, it can turn into vinegar.

What should I consider my identity now?
(I'm guessing "old" and "square" now).

Nailed it in one I'm afraid.

Though we could always try and invent a honorary one. Ancient Nerd? Elder Nerd? Post-Nerd Character? Any of those strike your fancy.



Honestly, to the original question, when you no longer stop mentiniong what and how much you like it to strangers because you think they might consider you negatively if you do.

I wasn't much aware of "Geek" as a label back in the '80's/when I was a teenager.

It's sort of like "mosh-pit" instead of "slam" or "thrash", a newer nomenclature that I wasn't inculcated with as much.

Funny thing is, labels are something social scientist tack on you after the fact. I remember watching a documentary on punk and most of them at the time didn't know what it was or wanted to be part of it. Works for other things too, sword nerds today argue about size and shape and definition of various bladed weapons. 95% which when they were made and used was just swrods or blades. Making it a bit tricky for rpgers to assign a dX value to weapons.

[warty goblin]

It could be you just aren't wild about modern nerd stuff for whatever reason. I still read buckets of fantasy and sci fi, but nearly all of it is like 20+ years old because I prefer the flavor and aesthetics of that to most modern material. I'm not saying its better in some existential sense, I just like it more.

This is really easy with movies, which have been rather devoured by superheroes for the last decade or so. If they aren't your thing, a lot of the big movies just leave a person going "eh". Again, not saying that they are bad, just not my thing, in the very specific sense that they are predictable in ways I don't enjoy.

[dps]

I'm pretty sure that if you want to call yourself a nerd being on a webforum for a webcomic based more than a little in D&D qualifies all by its lonesome.

Bingo! That's the ticket.

[Tvtyrant]

Identities only mean something if they are exclusionary. Since nerd is no longer a lump category of people derided for having atypical hobbies, it isn't much of an identity anymore.

[Jan Mattys]

Never.

Societal/trendy definitions of things are nonsensical, transient and ultimately pointless.

Define yourself however you want to make yourself happy and ignore all things that try to tear it down. People who try to define you otherwise and quibble over such things are nothing but jerks who you should not listen to.

{Scrubbed}

[JNAProductions]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

I dunno, seems like they've got a good point. Perhaps said a touch overzealously, but the general thrust of "Don't let others define you for yourself" is an excellent one.

[Lord Raziere]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

Thank you. I do try to keep my inner child alive and not get destroyed by the cruelty of the world, glad to know I'm successful. Rather than moping wondering what other people who will never know me think about my identity which is only ever relevant to myself, thus prompting silly doubts and becoming someone bitter tying oneself down to cold statistics and sociological climates that will just keep hurting you without care.

@ JNA Productions:
I do apologize, I place little value on social expectations and etiquette, and having your identity defined by such things is pretty much alien to me, to phrase it less zealously: "Its all going to change someday anyways, because its constantly changing based on strange abstract factors that you have no control over, so defining yourself by something that is constantly changing and fickle won't ever work out for you. just define yourself, and if anyone tries to hurt you by saying your definition of yourself is wrong, ignore them, they're not worth your time."

[Psyren]

I wasn't much aware of "Geek" as a label back in the '80's/when I was a teenager.

It's sort of like "mosh-pit" instead of "slam" or "thrash", a newer nomenclature that I wasn't inculcated with as much.

https://xkcd.com/747/

Randall's comic itself is tongue-in-cheek but the alt-text gives a starting point:

"The definitions I grew up with were that a geek is someone unusually into something (so you could have computer geeks, baseball geeks, theater geeks, etc) and nerds are (often awkward) science, math, or computer geeks. But definitions vary."

[warty goblin]

Identities only mean something if they are exclusionary. Since nerd is no longer a lump category of people derided for having atypical hobbies, it isn't much of an identity anymore.

Do what I do and find weirder hobbies. Once you can deliver a five minute lecture on why Brittish powder handling in a naval context was fatally flawed in 1916 and how this led to the loss of three battlecruisers at Jutland, I guarantee people will be giving you that good old side eye again!

[Vinyadan]

https://xkcd.com/747/

Randall's comic itself is tongue-in-cheek but the alt-text gives a starting point:

"The definitions I grew up with were that a geek is someone unusually into something (so you could have computer geeks, baseball geeks, theater geeks, etc) and nerds are (often awkward) science, math, or computer geeks. But definitions vary."

That's similar to mine. There's also this pretty different version:



But I agree that it isn't a very meaningful distinction, and that there is a lot of overlap.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

What you're saying in resonates with me and a series of changes I've gone through and it has a lot to do with the growth of "nerd culture". There are numerous sources you can now go to for "general geek culture" rather than just one subject that appeals to geeks such as rpgs & ccgs, horror movies, science fiction, comic books, etc.

To the extent that there was a nerd identity in the eighties it was a contrast to the jock; unathletic, socially awkward and perhaps most importantly the victim of bullying by jocks and popular kids. To a lesser extent the nerd was the victimized underclass of society at large. The modern nerd seems more closely associated with consuming a class of entertainment products that have become mainstream.

I almost perfectly fit the mold of the nerd in school, though I was overweight rather than rail thin. Now though I don't fit it so well. I'm a happily married home owner, I lift and jog and am now in better shape than most of my cohort, and I've reverted to the religion I was raised in.

[Willie the Duck]

First of all, I agree that the term nerd has been diluted to the point that you can't definitively be in or out of it, since it has bled seemlessly into the mainstream. Regardless...

In trying to remember what my favorite movies that were made within the last 20 years back when I was 17 I think my list would've been:[i][b]
...
Can nerdlines be lost?

Is nerd "cred" from decades ago still good?

What should I consider my identity now?

(I'm guessing "old" and "square" now).

Those two lines caught my attention. Go look at the video Vinyadan posted:--

That's similar to mine. There's also this pretty different version:

Not the 'nerds are programmers with B.O., geeks are hipsters who embrace nerdy pop culture' line, but the actual insults and boasts going back and forth. Notice how much of them involve how one or the other of them spent various parts of their childhood, and/or when/if the other got to/gets to have sex? As in, stuff that for a married (IIRC) individual well into adulthood would consider water under the bridge/rather sad to be obsessing about now?

I think, in some real way, trying real hard to "define yourself as a _____" is something inherently a young person's endeavor. Seems that way for other sub groups. I know there's that one guy we al know that is 40-50 and still 'being a goth/punk/hippy' and that's a huge part of their self identity, but most of the ones I know vaguely in those groups, they're just themselves and if they still have the tats or mohawk or black nail polish, it's just part of them. I think it works for nerddom as well. Am I, in my mid 40s, a nerd? Not yes, not no. I'm a guy who likes some nerd-culture things. Enough to qualify? That's a ridiculous concept, in my mind. I like them, and not other nerd things. Done.

[Spellweaver]

Well being a Nerd, or Jock, or Socs or Outsider or such does not just depended on what movies you like.

Your first list is a list of a lot of classic Nerd/Geek movies(except you missed Flash Gordon, Battle beyond the Stars, Wargames and Tron). Your current list is very different.

What a person likes does often change a bit as they get older, though that does vary from person to person. Though the big thing that changes is time. When your young you have near unlimited time to watch movies or do anything else. Once you get older, you often have no time...and sure don't have hours of free time to sit down and watch a movie.

Like the question is, have you really not liked even one sci fi or fantasy film in the last 20 years? Or is it a lot more that you simply have not seen the bulk of them?

The Martian, Edge Of Tomorrow, Interstellar, Annihilation, Donnie Darko, Ex Machina, Looper, Gravity, Inception, Snowpeicer, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Wall-E, Arrival, or Children of Men. Did you really like none of those movies? Or have you just not seen most of them?


Anyway, you are not some label based on the movies you like: you are just you.

[2D8HP]

[...]have you really not liked even one sci fi or fantasy film in the last 20 years? Or is it a lot more that you simply have not seen the bulk of them?

The Martian, Edge Of Tomorrow, Interstellar, Annihilation, Donnie Darko, Ex Machina, Looper, Gravity, Inception, Snowpeicer, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Wall-E, Arrival, or Children of Men. Did you really like none of those movies? Or have you just not seen most of them?[...]

Of your list I remember seeing Interstellar (which gave me tears), Looper (which I barely remember), and Snowpeicer (which I remember well but don't plan on ever re-watching), the rest of your list I didn't see.

The last "sci-fi" film that deeply impressed me was 1997's Gattaca, though I remember 2004's Primer was pretty good as well.

[Tvtyrant]

Of your list I remember seeing Interstellar (which gave me tears), Looper (which I barely remember), and Snowpeicer (which I remember well but don't plan on ever re-watching), the rest of your list I didn't see.

The last "sci-fi" film that deeply impressed me was 1997's Gattaca, though I remember 2004's Primer was pretty good as well.

The new Blade Runner was fantastic IMO, much better than the original. If you are looking for good new sci-fi.

[Peelee]

Of your list I remember seeing Interstellar (which gave me tears), Looper (which I barely remember), and Snowpeicer (which I remember well but don't plan on ever re-watching), the rest of your list I didn't see.

The last "sci-fi" film that deeply impressed me was 1997's Gattaca, though I remember 2004's Primer was pretty good as well.

The Matrix was pretty amazing in '99. I also really liked Equilibrium. And I would be remiss if I didn't wholly recommend you check out Mad Max: Fury Road. In fact, you should take the rest of the day off, go home, and watch that right now. Or, if you're intent on things like "keeping your job," then as soon as possible.

ETA: Oh, also, Moon. I think you'd love Moon. You like Sam Rockwell? Imean, who doesn't, but still. He totally sells that movie.

[2D8HP]

The new Blade Runner was fantastic IMO, much better than the original. If you are looking for good new sci-fi.

Thanks for the tip!

The Matrix was pretty amazing in '99.

I saw a bit of The Matrix and I wasn't impressed, I thought the earlier Dark City did similar themes better (but I saw Dark City in the theater, and what I watched of The Matrix was on television so maybe that's the difference?).

I also really liked Equilibrium. And I would be remiss if I didn't wholly recommend you check out Mad Max: Fury Road. In fact, you should take the rest of the day off, go home, and watch that right now. Or, if you're intent on things like "keeping your job," then as soon as possible.

ETA: Oh, also, Moon. I think you'd love Moon. You like Sam Rockwell? Imean, who doesn't, but still. He totally sells that movie.

Thanks for the tips!

[Peelee]

I saw a bit of The Matrix and I wasn't impressed, I thought the earlier Dark City did similar themes better (but I saw Dark City in the theater, and what I watched of The Matrix was on television so maybe that's the difference?).

The bullet-time shots helped a lot. Also, I was a teenager at the time, so that probably influenced me towards the Matrix a good bit.

Oh, and for shame, self! I completely neglected The Iron Giant, which is easily in my top 5 fave movies ever. Bonus points: that one is also suitable for the whole family! The other three are all R-rated, IIRC.