Geeks and nerds

I think for me my view on the difference between geeks and nerds has changed over the years.

Whilst I was in high school I always found the word geek to be a derogatory term, where as nerd wasn't. I always preferred to be called a nerd rather geek. I don't know why this was but my friends agreed.

Over last year my opinion on this has changed. Now I would say that there isn't really that big a difference between nerds and geeks, I would actually say that most of the time they are interchangeable. Although I would say I agree with nerd being someone who has a general interest in being intelligent and liking stuff far more than your average person and geek being someone with an obsession with one thing.

Kind of hoped I'd have more to say on this but I think we've all kind of agree on the definition of geek and nerd.

Nerdspotting

My method of differentiating between geeks and nerds is actually very similar to what Sarah wrote yesterday.

Nerds, in my definition, have a wide range of interests.  Nerds are nerds about everything (or a lot of things, at any rate).

Geeks, on the other hand, tend to be more narrowly focused on a certain subject.  Geeks are geeks about specific things.

There is one other criterion that I would like to add.  I associate both nerds and geeks as being, in general, on average, not in every case but fairly often, more introverted as well as more intelligent than non-nerd/geeks.  I would say the introversion applies slightly more to geeks and the intelligence slightly more to nerds.  So, both nerds and geeks have above-average levels of introversion and intelligence, but I think it would be more likely to find an extroverted nerd than an extroverted geek, and more likely to find an average-intelligence geek than an average-intelligence nerd.  Of course, these are clearly blanket statements and not hard and fast rules, but I feel like that is the way it is, in general.

It is possible to be both a nerd and a geek.  You can be a nerd in general, but have specific things that you geek about.

Personally, I am a nerd, but I don't think I'm geek about anything any more (I used to be a geek about both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, and a really long time ago, about Pokémon, but I've lost my geek-level of interest in any of those things).

Nerds vs. Geeks

So this week we're discussing the differences between nerds and geeks. Personally, I think they're similar but not the same. You can be one, the other or both, it's pretty flexible.

Nerds

To me a nerd has always just been a person who likes to like things. A nerd has a wide variety of interests and isn't bothered to admit it or increase their knowledge, they also wouldn't mind being introduced to anything new.

Geeks

Geeks in my definition are similar to nerds but without the wide variety of interest. When someone is classified as a geek, to me it's that they have a specialized interest. A geek has a subject that they excel in, something they favor more with their enthusiasm.

While I'm a nerd for all sorts of things, especially books (book geeks are also possible), I consider myself a Harry Potter geek because those are honestly my favorite books and I have a habit of trying to see how many small details about the wizarding world I can memorize. I figure geeks also can just go to a certain genre, you can be a sci-fi geek, a mystery geek.

Summary
In summary, nerds are people who like a lot of stuff, like to learn about stuff and are not ashamed of it. Geeks are nerds with specialized interests.

This was short, I'm bothered by how short my nerd paragraph is to my geek paragraph.

Wrapping up theme week and thoughts about the blog

It seems like we're starting to get somewhere with finding some purpose and inspiration here. Yay!

I made a page with all of our theme suggestions, as well as the theme for next week at the very top.* I also updated the sidebar because, seriously, I think we should call each other by our actual names at this point, it has been almost half a year :P** If you guys don't like anything about either of those, feel free to change them (directions are under the asterisks in case you have any trouble finding it).

At this point I'm pretty excited to get on with our "real" posts. The only other suggestion I really have to offer is that we make sure we pick our topics early every week, either in posts/comments here, or on Facebook. And now we have a great big list of ideas to choose from if none of us are struck with any particular inspiration.

That's about it from me. See you guys next week to talk about how we define nerds and geeks!

*If you want to change anything about it, under the posting tab, click "edit pages" and you'll find it there.

**This can be changed under the design tab, if you click on "edit" by the box that says text.

Yet more about the blog

Ok first off, Totally didn't realise that yesterday was Wednesday until I was walking to my friends house to spend the night watching DVDs. So I thought I'd use today since no one else is posting so I wouldn't have to go a week without writing anything.

I think I may have mentioned this before but I really like all the themes have been suggested, I think we should just work through them. One theme I could think of is what we think about the differences in legal drinking ages around the world, it's something I'm interested in and thought about it since Rachel mentioned she was turning 21 soon and with me being 19 and already legally been able to drink for a year. I think differences in things like that are interesting and it would be good to get other opinions on that. I think it's a topic that would create a good conversation between us.

Anyway, I'm not the best at thinking up questions or themes and I've left this pretty late again so this going to be a short blog.

Potential Themes

Okay, so I guess for this week we're doing theme suggestions?  That's my understanding, anyway, so that's what I'm going to do.  I've done some brainstorming on my own, modified a few from these prompts, and perused a few of the other group blogs to see what they've been writing about, and these are the suggestions I've come up with:


Pick a moment during which you felt most alive.  Describe it in vivid detail.

Tell us about someone or something that you've had to let go of.

What are 5 things you don't need in your life?  How could you go about eliminating them?

What are 5 things you would like to have in your life?  How could you make them a  part of it?

What is something that you appreciate?  How do you express your gratitude for it?

Imagine you will completely lose your memory of the past year in five minutes.  Set an alarm for five minutes and write down all of the things you want to remember the most.

Tell us how someone you know has changed your life.

What is something that you would like to try?

What is something that you know you should do, but don't because you're too busy, scared, or otherwise deterred from doing it?

If you had to change your name to something different, what name would you choose and why?

What are some ordinary, day-to-day things that bring you joy?

What is the most memorable gift you've ever received?

If you only had one month to live, how would you live it?

What is something/what are some things that remind(s) you of your childhood (music, food, smell, place, person, etc.)

How do you define home?  Where do you consider your home to be?

What is a cause that you really believe in, and how do you support it?

Share something you've created that you're proud of (visual art, writing, photography, musical composition, fancy spreadsheet, etc.)

What's your experience with bullying?  Have you ever been bullied, been the bullier, witnessed bullying?  What did you do about it?

What would your perfect day be like?

What are some things you would like to learn (knowledge or skills)?

If you were going to make a time capsule for yourself, to be opened in 10 years, what would you put in it?

Late thoughts on the blog

It would be just like me to forget to post when the subject is the lack of posting and prevalence of issues. So I'm going to try and make up for last week now. You've all really hit the nail on the head here and included a good list of possible topics/themes to write on even.

I've been highly guilty of forgetting to post as well. I honestly think it's due to the season. It's summer and we all have so much on our minds, jobs, travels, weather, etc.. We forget to post theme ideas in the facebook page and I feel awkward Monday morning realizing I have to post without anything to go on or prepare for, we're all at fault for not interacting enough in that area. And like it has been stated before, we need to interact more with each other and get to know one another on the blog more. If we've already gone five months without hating each other or giving up yet we can get the blog back on its feet. I've tried to do a lot of collaborative projects and activities before and this is the longest running and most successful one I've been involved in and it's made me really happy.

I think we definitely need to think about our schedule. Maybe we should switch it up? Or reorganize how to do it. We could do the one person per week, or maybe even a rotating schedule of two people per week, with an odd number of people (because it does look like replacing Kaity might have to happen) there could be a little variation each week without it being confusing. Example, in a group of five people (a, b, c, d, e) and two people posting per week.
Week 1: ab
Week 2: cd
Week 3: ea
Week 4: bc
Week 5: de
It's just something I thought about.

We also definitely need to consider themes more frequently. I like the idea of a week of brainstorming ideas. I also like the idea free weeks to talk about what we've been doing recently. So finding a way to include both themed and free weeks well ahead of time should be a major goal.

I know I'm going to try and make more of an effort to comment on posts and interact with the rest of you.