How are your stereotypical nerds or geeks made?

Maybe you should become a social anthropologist with your area of expertise being "the nerd".

I don't think it hard to imagine a "nerdless" world. All you have to do is look for societies either past or present that did/do not, by your definition, have nerds. Think of Spartan society. Not really too much opportunity to engage in "nerd like" activities.

I'm sure if you look across time and geography you could discover some prerequisites for nerds to develop. For instance, I think having free time is probably a prerequisite. If you lived a life of a serf or slave it probably is not that easy to be a nerd. If you have no access to education or you are illiterate I would argue it is difficult to be a nerd. Therefore, I think you might trace the rise of the nerd back to the Gutenberg press and the rise of literacy.

You might also look across history and find some examples of great nerds of the past. What allowed them to be nerdy? Think of Sir Isaac, Da Vinci, Kant, Einstein? Who was the official "first nerd" to ever emerge? Maybe it was young, soon to be king playing with his toy soldiers.

Lost1023 wrote:How will nerd culture or geek culture look like if these nerdy hobbies listed below never existed? Would there still even be a nerd culture? Would the stereotypical nerds or geeks even exist?

These are the list of nerdy entertainment hobbies I am talking about:

1. Video games
2. Comics
3. Cartoons
4. Fantasy genre
5. Science Fiction genre
6. Superhero genre
7. Horror genre
8. Martial Arts genre
9. Pre modern pre gun powder warfare genre

Now I am wondering if the non existence of these listed nerdy hobbies would contribute to young toddlers who have the potential to be stereotypical nerds in becoming more social, strong willed, manly, outgoing, into physical sports, parties, and sex. Would the non existence of these listed nerdy hobbies contribute to rapid decreasing of social awkwardness, timidness, introversion, and lack of awareness of one's personal appearance to the public?

What do you think? What are the psychological and sociological factors that contributes to the making of your stereotypical nerd or geek?

I loved the Stan Lee comics as a boy. The Fantastic Four, The Hulk and Spiderman. You would buy the comics at the newsagents. Peter Parker was, of course, geeky. So perhaps was Bruce Banner. Even Daniel Larusso in The Karate Kid was what you might call a bit of a loser - on his pushbike and low budget.

Bodybuilding was a natural progression. Most bodybuilders were a bit socially awkward. Bodybuilding in the 1970s was a terrific sport. I used to think muscles would attract girls but in reality I hadn't learned to be myself.