Label Me

Geek, nerd, or dork?

According to dictionary.com, all three words have a variation of "a stupid or ridiculous person" as the first definition. Nerd is used to define dork, but not vice versa. A geek is also "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken." Both nerd and geek have a second definition: "an intelligent but single-minded expert in a particular technical field or profession," with geek focusing more on the computer aspect of things. What does it mean to be a nerd, geek, or dork?

It seems that dork still has mostly negative connotations. A dork is a person who can't dress, can't hold a conversation, and isn't even redeemed by an above average level of intelligence. Nose-picking, mouth-breathing, basement-dwelling losers.
The computer people have adopted geek as their own. Geek no longer means pocket-protectors and DnD. Geek means hacker, fixer, modder, the chick who pwnd you on Halo. Geeks live in cyberspace and if your laptop breaks, you know where to go to not only get it up and running, but have it work better than before (thanks, Jewfro!).

I identify with the nerd label. To me, nerd is the highest level of, uh, geekdom? nerdism? Whatever you call it, nerd is the best. I clean up OK, I can hold conversations on several different topics, and I have had sex with a real-life boy (hi Mom!). I've been know to enjoy comic books, sci-fi novels, movies made from comic books and sci-fi novels, Star Trek, pictures of space, video games and shows on the Discovery channel. I love to read and I spend a fair amount of time on the computer. Does this make me a nerd? Frankly, I don't care.

I suppose I could just as easily fit into the geek category, but if your laptop dies, the best I could do is to throw it in the trash for you. Geeks are specialized nerds. Nerds can be nerdy about sports, books, movies, TV, music, and food. Dorks, well, all I got is that it used to be slang for dick. Sorry.