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I dug this out of my drafts. I wrote this about a month back, but thought it was lame. But I still feel decently strongly about it, and I’m putting it up, with a few revisions.

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When picking a new name for this blog, I took care to keep something that I could immediately relate to. A name that would immediately tell people what the blog was about, while not being too common. This was also the time a friend began calling me a ‘geek’. That was something I had never been called before, although people’s reaction to it told me it was nothing to be proud of. So I went hunting to find the exact meaning of ‘geek’, and why I was called one. Two definitions (out of many) in particular caught my attention:

Geek (gēk)

A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.

A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. Most geeks are adept with computers, and treat the term hacker as a term of respect, but not all are hackers themselves.

But the one that took the cake was “A nerd with social skills”. It defines everything perfectly. Of course, you’ll need to look up nerd as well. The up-side is that it provides a simple but required distinction between the two oft-confused nouns.

The big issue

The reason I’m picking up this topic is because people confuse the two words, and wrongly use either one (thinking they mean the same), when it’s not correct. Ultimately, society looks at both the stereotypes in a not-so-cheerful way. Calling someone a geek is the 8th grade version of taunting. I want to do my part to change that notion.

I pride myself on being a geek. More-so since I find out the difference between a nerd and a geek. Being considered above-average intellectually, someone who prefers to experiment rather than follow a dogmatic way of thinking and a power computer user are all good things. Also, I actively correct anyone who uses ‘nerd’. Most of the nerds today are actually geeks, just mis-stereotyped.

People like me won’t bother with what others have to say about us (it’s there in the definition of ‘geek’ itself). However, bloggers had a field day with Valentine’s day this time around, with posts upon posts about the single-ness and how to spend the day. The stereotype beckoned the worst. It also showed how geeks themselves don’t know that they’re geeks … and resign themselves to being called nerds.

Being a nerd is bad, even according to me. All they have is a brain-full of information, and truckloads of knowledge. Change a nerds setting, and they get unsettled because they are rigid in their habits and patterns. They have an almost non-existent social life, which is bad because the best way to learn is by learning from others. They are duds practically, choosing to speculate and innovate theoretically. Being overly smart is a flaw in itself.

The geeks cometh

It’s the time where people are fascinated by new devices and software hitting the markets. May it be a phone or a computer, the first point of advice that people seek are their friends who are good with those things. Suddenly, geeks are in demand, because they’ve stayed at the front-line, tracking and following news and views. They know what is good and what is bad … what is marketing and what is usability. They are almost the final word on a decision.

So the next time someone calls you a geek, smile! It’s a compliment. They call you a nerd, correct them!