Why Nerd Culture DIED...

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In this video, we're diving into the wild world of nerd culture, all the way from its quiet beginnings to its current status. We're tackling how "nerd" moved from being an insult to a badge of honor. However, as more folks hopped on the nerd wagon, corporations saw dollar signs, leading to an over-commercialized, watered-down version of what once was.
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[@JimmyTheGiant]

New Bespoke Post subscribers get 20% off their first box of awesome - go to bespokepost.com/jimmythegiant20 and enter code JIMMYTHEGIANT20 at checkout. Thanks to Bespoke Post for sponsoring!

[@davidwestwood351]

Only for the US and Canada. Found out after filling out all the info. Be good in the UK @Bespokepost

[@Iekroddenadro]

🤓

[@Meleeman011]

you're wrong, the nerds just got more social than they realized. the real nerds you don't hear about.

[@ArnoBach]

Please refrain from posting content that uses blasphemous language.

[@Iekroddenadro]

@@Meleeman011 🤓

[@jackal2568]

For all the redditors out there: Collecting Funko Pops, playing video games and watching infotainment videos on KZbin doesn't make you smart for the record.

[@theunicornbay4286]

"I watch scishow im so smart"

[@mrangles3402]

spoken like a true nerd

[@DeadlyAlienInvader]

Especially not reviewing and nitpicking media-being a cinema sins or the nostalgia critic clone(especially in a non-digital socio-setting)wouldn’t make people appreciate or respect your intelligence-it will only make people want to tape your mouth shut-or after doing that, dunk your head on a toilet.

[@safsnake]

good old swirlies

[@shorecasted9295]

What if I also listen to Tool?

[@MrSpeakeroth]

in history on the bookworm topic, the nerd and the jock were the same person. You were expected to both develop yourself physically and mentally. Especially so in ancient Greece where the gym was were you worked out and talked about intellectual topics like philosophy. The modern ascendency of nerds merging with the gym bro culture could be viewed as a return to the historical norm.

[@smasher.338]

Thats a good take.

[@siroshcelot]

I feel like Stoicism truly embodies the mixture of excercising the mind and body

[@guccimane8941]

Interesting

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

The dumb jock is also more a trope of high school movies, American high school movies in particular, more then a truth. There are the socially challenged kids who don’t do well in school right alongside the jocks and cheerleaders on honor role and have always been. Loving DnD or even being into computer programing doesn’t default to A++ student good at everything. And being a Jock or Cheerleader doesn’t mean you never picked up a book. Look at the Death Note Anime. Light was Handsome, popular, (evil) but a star student. The lie has always been intelligence defaults to uncool also that there is one type/demonstration of intellegence when there are many different types and smart charismatic people can choose to use their powers for evil or good, but they aren’t lunkheads.

[@catriona_drummond]

The stereotype of nerd is a byproduct of American anti-intellectualism. Check out any non-anglo-american culture and you'll find a very different outlook. In 80's Germamy a kid withglasses a slightly too much general knowledge would be nicknamed "professor", not nerd. It had a whiff of respect to it, the assumption was that they'd get far.

[@dracotias]

Nerd culture really is the case study on why it's sometimes better to let things be uncool...By trying to make people see how fun our stuff was, we brought about our own downfall.

[@jackmorris303]

And this downfall is...?

[@MrLense]

What downfall? Nerdy stuff is cool and that's great. Why does what used to be niche, need to stay niche?

[@humanblibord7386]

"nerd culture really is the case study on why it's sometimes better to let things be uncool...By trying to make people to see how fun our stuff was, we were brought about our own downfall"🤓

[@DeathSensei]

@@MrLensejust look at the marvel cinematic universe. Comics and some of the more niche stuff used to be seen as so nerdy and geeky and it had its own charm to it. Now tho with the MCU it’s just your average run of the mill action comedy trying to make a funny comment every 2-6 minutes because it’s made for mass audiences. Superheroes have always somewhat been popular but have never been so popular and mass produced til now. Same with anime. Was seen as so nerdy and cringe, now there’s so many generic clones of every popular niche which is why the “isekai genre” has dozens made every season instead of finding new and exciting concepts. It’s not exactly a thing that it becoming popular makes stuff worse, it’s more so that because nerdy/geeky things become popular industries become inherently more capitalistic and therefore sacrifice the enjoyment of their original audience for the mainstream. The same can be said for fighting games which have really been dumbed down for mainstream too. Look at street fighters downfall prior to SF6.

[@ogvelociraptor205]

​@@jackmorris303grifters who do it for likes/followers until the next "Mainstream Trend Drops"

[@misteralien8313]

It's not the nerds/geeks that changed. The jocks and the cool kids just found their way into the nerd and geek culture and made it popular.

[@seffer9772]

And ruined it*

[@achimdemus-holzhaeuser1233]

yeap now we need to find another niche to retreat to. and for the record Social Media is the antithesis of Nerd Culture as well. Now I have to see, listen and talk to people online I did not want to see in real live. Social Media ruined the competence barrier for the internet that existed before, luckily most of those people still think social media is the internet ..

[@arthas640]

Yeah. Remember when chat rooms, online dating, computers, and videogames were nerdy? Now social media and online dating is dominated by "cool" people and jocks, and gaming is mainstream.

[@w00dsm0ke]

Jocks and cool kids play Call of Duty. Hardly a nerd activity such as D&D and programming.

[@Mr.YasQueen]

My cousin is like that. He's not really a nerd, but will infiltrate "Nerd/geek" spaces and then hook up with nerdy women, while actual nerds struggle with women in their own circles lol.

[@anonimonn9775]

Nerds have gone all the way from being the underdogs on media to be the new villains: more and more movies nowadays have the bad guy be a tech billionaire, like Upgrade, Free Guy and some others i won't spoil.

[@scorelineupdate129]

Another movies are shit now and unwatchable

[@lv1543]

its realistic to assume that lifelong trauma from being ostracized would result in a person growing resentment and then consolidating power for themselves.

[@anonimonn9775]

@@lv1543 the first examples were like that, llike in Iron Man 3, but now their motive is usually not resentment or vengeance but their own egomaniacal reasons

[@anotheryoutubeaccount5259]

Who cares

[@eduardochavacano]

"Life is just the revenge of the nerds" The most intelligent politician in Asia once laughingly said. So the concept is not new. Revenge Of The Nerds is actually a hit 80s movie.

[@nunyabusiness9013]

I grew up in the 80's. As a nerd myself I was bullied growing up. The public image of "nerds" really started to change between 95-2000. I think the main contributing factor was the mainstream popularity of video games and the internet.

[@TimoCruz177]

these things just started to make money so the main stream media and big corps just navigated towards this topic and make it cool with their new movies and tv shows. now the nerd is the cool slick dude that gets all the girls while the jock is the stupid dude that does nothing other than pick up fights and lift weights and even the pretty girl now ditches the jock to get with the nerd

[@mgradiant]

Honestly, as a nerd that was bullied horrendously growing up, I’m wary of us being popular. I’m reminded of the line from MacBeth, “There’s daggers in [people’s] smiles.” We may be “cool” now, but that can change on a dime. I still somewhat expect people to treat me the way I was treated growing up. Color me skeptical of the mainstream, y’all.

[@DatAsianGuy]

the biggest mistake nerds/geeks did was not gatekeep their hobbies and spaces. I have seen so many franchises get butchered, because they were trying to go mainstream or because new "fans" entered the fanbase and demanded changes. Even if those changes went against the core-identity of the hobby. There are constantly people complaining and demanding that Warhammer 40K be less dark and gritty. And that it shouldn't be so full of fascism, zealotry and bigotry and hatred, when the entire charm of it is that there are no real good guys. And in some aspects of Warhammer 40k did actually change for the worse.

[@msid7748]

@@DatAsianGuy Exactly. I read the first part of your comment and was already thinking of 40k. Then I saw your second paragraph. 40k's entire charm is the sheer hopelessness of its universe and the satirical fascism of the Imperium. Yes, it might seem overwhelming and boring at times. Normies ruined comics by infecting it with bs modern day American politics. Now they'll do it with 40k. Part of me wants Cavill's show to fail.

[@DatAsianGuy]

@@msid7748 yeah, the only way Cavill can succeed in the long term, is if he stands firm and doesn't compromise what 40K is about. a grim dark future on the verge of self-desturction, basically.

[@nurtaytulegenov7431]

​@DatAsianGuy I think the biggest downfall of the Warhammer 40k tabletop was the 8th edition, which oversimplified the rules. Like in our club we made custom rules to make battles even more realistic, we tried to combine killteam mechanics (custom Infinity like) with general rules. Lots of players either left the WH or resorted to modeling only

[@nurtaytulegenov7431]

​@@msid7748when first WH started getting popularity I was hoping more cool animations would be made, more talented artists and creators would make WH arts and etc. It was really joyful period, but then "mainstream" struck like a lightning burning all to the ground

[@pm-5565]

Steve Jobs wasn't the nerd, nor the one that knew much about anything related to computers on a technical level for a long time, that was his friend Steve Wozniak initially who in a fair reality would we be the one we praise along with all the nameless people that actually invented all that stuff Jobs is still being credited for. Jobs was the "brains" as far as he would tell people what he wanted and for a long time he did so without even having a grasp of what was really possible or not, it's fair to credit him as far as being a visionary but in reality it was more a skill of knowing how to read trends as soon as they started happening and also QoL improvements for needs that people had already developed. Much like Elon Musk really, people give him credit for so much but his only achievement ever has been paying actual smart "nerds" to invent stuff for him so he can claim it as his, never gets credited with the far bigger amount of failures though.

[@Gosudarski]

It's like the songs - nobody cares who wrote music, lyrics , who recorded it etc... All credit's goes to singer and nobody cares..I thought author will say Steve ...Wozniak ..but no ... Who is on the stage gets all credits. By the way Tom Cruise did amazing movie 'Top Gun';)

[@ej1_drew]

exactly, like i put it simply for people to understand this by saying Elon musk didn't invent anything new, nor did he design the tesla cars (the guy's probably never even wrenched on a car) he's just a savvy investor.

[@MechaJutaro]

Yep. Jobs was Venkman to Woz's Stantz and someone else's Spangler. And I mean this as a compliment to all of these fellas. It takes a team to build and maintain a powerhouse like Apple

[@cathyannis83]

Thank you! This kind of bugged me when he started talking about Jobs without mentioning Wozniak at all, just Steve Jobs plus a random team of people...

[@mofik26]

Agreed. I thought he would say "Apple II was made by Steve Wozniak" rather jobs, I mean the only thing that Jobs did is design the computer case all of the important things like motherboard and power supply were made by wozniak, manock and holt.

[@1nONLY_DRock]

It's not that the awkward old-school nerd or geek took over. It was the cool and charismatic types co-opted the nerd and geek culture. They still have the same bluster, the same bravado, the same obnoxiousness. It's the tools and the battlefield for success that's changed. So where's the nerdy types now? In the arts and actual sciences. We lost pop culture.

[@EmptyZoo393]

Dungeons and Dragons is the epitome of this. It used to be that you could leave all the crazy politics and drama of the world and go be an elven hero in a fantastical world with your friends while eating pizza and chips. Now, you've got sourcebooks for fifth edition that refuse to say that dwarves are hardier due to innate differences and try to attribute it to diet, because they don't want to make the mistake of assuming "Cultural Essentialism" (their words, not mine). D&D was where folks went to avoid those complex social games, not play a proxy war of them.

[@1nONLY_DRock]

@@EmptyZoo393 I never once mentioned politics so I think you're projecting a little bit

[@CF-bg3jd]

Those slick charismatic types infiltrated the arts for awhile in the 90’s and 2000’s and brought us Kincaid paintings, McMansions.

[@SkSu242]

Eh. In reality the nerds were never any more likeable than the cool and charismatic types, they were just the underdogs.

[@WeirdTale]

Exactly.

[@nurtaytulegenov7431]

I personally don't think that nerd stereotype has become more acceptable. A wide variety of nerd hobbies did become mainstream. However, personality types of those who originally formed nerd communities still looked down upon. Personality traits popular back in the 80s are merged with new nerd archetypes, which resulted in mentioned in the video Tony Stark, Sherlock, Dr Strange and etc., where "jock"-traits like assertiveness, charisma, masculine confidence are still present in combination with observancy, sharp mind and sophisticated language of "nerd"-traits

[@trolleriffic]

@@Ggggggfefdff The Original Trilogy that were among the most successful movies ever made, and were so popular that ordinary members of the public queued up round the block to buy tickets? That Original Trilogy? Liking Star Wars was always very mainstream. Being an obsessive superfan was always a niche interest, but saying that you loved the Star Wars films was never something that marked you out as a nerd.

[@Beavis-ej3ny]

I think this also changed how people view what is and is not nerdy. While before it was video games and comic books, now we view very niche and specific things like sciences and history as being more nerdy and uncool.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

Yeah, history especially. There are very few people I can geek out with about history.

[@artistrg3487]

@@TheDawnofVanlifeSame here ☹️

[@TheChuckfuc]

​@@TheDawnofVanlifewhich is weird because history might be the most important thing to geek over.

[@lmaobox4068]

@@TheChuckfuc Right Because the great beer flood is sooooo important to today

[@TheChuckfuc]

@@lmaobox4068 that's cherry picking. Anything could considered useless if you take random facts out of context.

[@landoc05]

In the 60s and 70s being called a "nerd" carried no pride in it. It didn't mean you were smart as much as that you were socially inept and ugly. It was a label others gave you, to hurt you. A consequence of it was that nerds were fairly gregarious. A nerd sought the company of other nerds. A nerd was defined, often, by communal projects. Apple came to exist because the Steves were close friends. Microsoft is a product of the Gates/Allen friendship too. Regardless of what happened after, many of the awesome things that happened in the 60s and 70s were the product of a close friendship between two intelligent, rather isolated guys: UNIX (Ritchie and Thompson), the Internet (Cerf and Kahn), etc. Nerd culture was gregarious. What computers did was turn that into a culture of individuals, now truly isolated. Younger generations try to convince themselves than having 10 online nerd friends is better than having one real life nerd friend you can actually visit and talk to while looking in the eye. No, it's not the same. An isolated nerd grows bitter. His productive ideas lack the back and forth with a similarly gifted friend. He gets stuck, he enters loops, and wastes energy on dead ends. That's what killed nerd culture. Not its popularization, but the isolation. And I tell you this as an old nerd, who was online back in the early 80s, when Usenet was brand new.

[@CamelSMG]

You better write a book on this, cuz I am interested in this topic.

[@Iekroddenadro]

🤓☝️

[@franze4]

i feel like something like that happened in my life, but being smart af ended up doing me 0 favors especially considering my friend group(s), so i somehow transformed my life into becoming a daily marijuana smoker with 0 aspirations in life and different friends yet i feel like im living better because now im not exhausted everyday, im just chillin with friends and making life what i want it, if i wouldn’t have found weed and i remained a nerd, i would’ve quickly ended up with no social life forever and i would’ve academically burned out anywya

[@CamelSMG]

​@@franze4 wtf me too, I dropped out of engineering because i was afraid of being intelectually burned out, and literally everything you said, happened to me, I am now do bodybuilding as a hobby and have lowered my intelectual hobbies, mostly because people around me just don't relate to such activities or level of complexity. I am graduating from Law School next year.

[@franze4]

@@CamelSMG yeah fr me too, i was a scrawny mf and around that time i started hitting the gym and within a year people were calling me buff and it made me feel better about myself, ultimately it’s not something i ended up sticking to on the long run but i am thankful for my gym phase because im still in pretty good shape now, i still exercise every now and then still but not really that much. and congrats on (almost) graduating law school, best of luck in your future

[@joelking313]

As a kid growing up through 2000-2010, runescape was also so popular because we could play it on our school computers. It was just soooooo accessible.

[@Wertyoco]

I'd argue nerds were financially successful throughout the 1900s to now. Their rung on the social ladder has increased since the rise of the Internet

[@caesarsigala]

We have to give it up for the true nerds. They gather ideas and use their intelligence to solve societies problems. They become doctors, scientists, etc. There are also evil nerds that monopolize everything for their own benefit. 🤷🏽

[@tracywilliams7929]

Perspicacious of you. The Meritocracy began its rise in 1875 England.(altho some estimates go as far back as the Mandarin class in Confucian China) It's success formula today is IQ + HARD WORK = MERIT, or《m = IQ + E》 Demographics shows that a gifted IQ isn't a requirement just a faith in the use of IQ to solve any personal or professional problem. Academic excellence isn't a sine qua non, either. Even a high school dropout can be a Meritocrat as long as the application of sheer intelligence whatever its level is demonstrated. Hence many high IQ types wouldn't be considered or consider themselves Meritocrats. As a social class the Meritocratic household has an average yearly income of about $300000 USD. They wield considerable and growing political clout.

[@eurosonly]

Just want to point out, that the people playing cod and are social media influencers are not actually nerds. They're rich suburb kids who just happened to get on the right train to fame by joining at the right time in dong vlogs. They are not passionate gamers. If gaming dies, they will be the first ones to get off that train. They are not gamers, they are hype beasts who are doing the popular thing at the right time. Playing cod does not make one a gamer. I know loads of people who only play cod and battle field but could not name any other game out there.

[@ez6888]

Volume of titles is not what defines a gamer.

[@p0werfu11]

It's better to play CoD and BF than play something like CS GO and Dota.

[@tuelzalt]

Idk about that... I dnt play COD but I play BF alot in the past. Played The Division like 3k hours etc... I've always been a lifelong gamer since my teal Gameboy Color and Pokémon Silver but I ask me about MineCraft of WoW and I've never played those games ever

[@angelinacamacho8575]

Its quality not quantity that makes a gamer a gamer. It's like how owning pokemon structure decks like certain KZbinrs doesn't make you a tcg player.

[@angelinacamacho8575]

​@@tuelzalt the only games I've ever played were JRPG games for some reason they just resonate more with me especially ones like pokemon where stats are involved.

[@otakubullfrog1665]

What we've lost through the mainstreaming of formerly geek hobbies and franchises is the ability to use them as easy signifiers. It used to be that someone who had a Spider-Man figurine somewhere in his office was probably also the sort of guy who also opened up the family VCR and tried to fix it when the picture started to go back when he was a kid, but now he could be anyone. Maybe we need to take it up a level and start displaying our award certificates from chess tournaments over our fireplaces so we can easily find each other again.

[@anerd42]

As a nerd: "Nerd culture" came over us, we were never really part of it. Arround 2010 or so somehow everyone tried to look like a nerd, without being it. I am kind of happy about the "death" of it. Now we can do our thing again, which never has been only DnD ;)

[@Zeagods-CyberShadow]

Im honestly happy that Nerd culture has died out and has become way more broad and open with anything

[@IkikaeruRaimei]

It's not nerd culture that came to me, it's my social awkwardness that came into nerd culture when I was young (nerd culture wasn't cool back then).

[@Jayalen]

Now its even weirder: woke culture

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I blame the Big Bang theory for it actually.... i HATE this show, even though i liked the first few episodes but quickly realized this show HATES Nerds as it laughs AT them, not with them.. and at one point all of the characters were "conform" and i was like "what the heck is even the point of this show? It's just like any other sitcom with dead fake laughtrack....".

[@eloisemturner2289]

Quit gatekeeping

[@-----------------------------]

Nerd culture today is practically just pop culture that rewards corporations.

[@Picardspassword]

nail. on. the. head.

[@trolleriffic]

Today? It's been like that for decades.

[@eq2092]

Ohh I so lived this. Born in 1977 I recall the late 90's you see I joined the Marines but was still a nerd however technology was quickly advancing. I remember learning how to operate marksmanship simulators, digital radios, early GPS units, etc.. And I was getting respect from the other Marines cause I was able to quickly learn how to use all this stuff. Then after I exited and 1st person shooters were becoming popular in the early 2000s I had street creed because I had physically done all the cool stuff in the games. Kicking down doors, helicopter assaults, tossing hand grenades, calling in air strikes. All culminating in my Engineering Degree and companies throwing money at me to come work for them.

[@caesarsigala]

Same. When I was in the military (national guard) I was good at calculating coordinates and when I would get to a location, I thought maybe I made a mistake because no one would be there. In actuality, I was the first one there.

[@erikfldt390]

As someone who got a taxpayer paid vacation to the sandbox, most of the FPS stuff is Hollywood. We relied far more on calling in mortars for indirect fire support, helos were rarely used for fast roping unless you were SF, and grenades were sparsely used in Baghdad since a dumbass private always looks for a chance to misuse them like when we did a night raid, some door kicker thought he was being all hooah by chucking in a flashbang. Luckily, he didn't pull the pin out enough and it didn't go off since he threw it into an innocent family. For some reason, Activision and EA don't put in total goatf*cks that're more common in an occupation than actual pitched battles, which were rare in the GWOT outside of Fallujah and a handful of skirmishes in Afghanistan.

[@MountainMoses33]

thats badass.

[@urphakeandgey6308]

I think another aspect people overlook is the death of "jocks" or "popular kids." They still exist to some degree, but nothing like how it seemed back then. Most kids nowadays mind their own business, schools are so big that there are multiple "popular kids" groups, and (to their limited credit) schools have also cracked down on bullying more. My dad also used to say "it's not uncool anymore to get good grades," which is definitely another contributor. No one makes fun of you just for getting good grades anymore. Back then, some would.

[@finalstation]

When he said Steve Jobs I thought he was going to say Steve Wozniak. They were both integral to apple, but Wozniak was the nerd.

[@doctorspook4414]

Steve Jobs would be nowhere without Steve Wozniak. While Jobs may have been the visionary, it was Wozniak that was the engineer that made Apple work.

[@Soulfin]

Plus he was just a dick in general, he unceremoniously fired everyone from MobileMe, the predecessors of Apple Cloud because it was imperfect and also Jony Ive the literal designer for the iPhone and iPad got verbally slapped in the face for telling Steve Jobs to mellow down. How is it that Bill Gates can become a good human being coming from the same dickish behavior as Steve Jobs and yet Steve Jobs stayed the same. It is no wonder he got kicked out of Apple.

[@mytruecrimelibrary]

I love this series on subcultures ❤

[@ReubenAStern]

Honourable mention Richard Ayoade. Stereotypical nerd, but also one of the most coolest, charismatic people on the planet.

[@guccimane8941]

What does he do

[@sumitrana2420]

@@guccimane8941 I have watched his show Gadget Man in my childhood but he is also in some other British shows.

[@juliusnepos6013]

@@sumitrana2420 yeah. I remember watching that show

[@Mr.PDF_File]

Love Richard! Part of the cast of one of the best sitcoms in history The IT Crowd

[@savagebeastking8703]

Everyone sub culture I liked became mainstream then I lost interest in it. It kind of sucks. I like the groups better then they were smaller there was more of a sense of community

[@Ganbre14]

Same every time a small fandom im in becomes Very big and popular i just dip cuz i know fights and toxicity are 100% gonna happen inside lol

[@jujuc-s5597]

I dont really think philosophers were really nerds they were more like professors i think

[@ReubenAStern]

@@gladius8825 philosophers are some of the biggest nerds out there. The only difference is they study people and are introspective, so they can interact better than your stereotypical nerd.

[@Riokaii]

bro every professor is a nerd about their subject matter, thats kinda what a PHD is

[@zulfastly5672]

Those philosopher know how to wrestle if I'm not mistaken, mentally and physically strong.

[@Guus115]

The first philosopher ever was a major Chad. He was super athletic and a cunning bussinesman. Thales of Miletes

[@Jimbob_Offical]

Yeah Greek philosophers weren't, they where more like thinkers, many of them where stupid, just one like online shows threw out history shows multiple Ancient Greeks figures died in the most dumb ways.

[@jonathanramos8414]

Do one on the skinhead subculture. Showcased in movies like this is england, romper stomper, American history x

[@thanqol]

Should have mentioned that the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films really brought nerd culture to the mainstream

[@Krypto_Dogg]

People pretending to be nerds now are just bullies with no status in school or their previous life, but are bullies themselves on the internet. Been this way for at least 20 years. Playing online games isn’t any different than hooping in the school gym where you get roasted for missing a shot or people think you can’t play so they don’t pass to you. Being a traditionally masculine male or James Dean type is becoming the new counter culture.

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

that manlet?? ALAN DELON MOGS THE FUCK OUT OF HIM LOL

[@nocturnalsunlight3639]

If being a masculine male is a counterculture, I'm happier than ever to join the mainstream. 💪

[@AdamJonasBuffalo]

If you ever played RuneScape, everybody knows you never actually stop playing it, just take long breaks

[@cs8712]

I'm currently on a 14 or so year hiatus, though I do log in to collect my 5 year capes.

[@bluethingy120]

The opinion on nerds changed because it was profitable to sell to a dedicated fan base.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Yes while also making fun of them.... Like "The Big Bang Theory"..... soooo many folks who see themself as nerds praised this god awful show that actively mocked them.

[@Rucnas]

⁠@@KRAFTWERK2K6Yep, the show was fking annoying to watch. The laugh tracks were extremely excessive.

[@jeremyfoss7183]

I would think the phenomenon of hipster culture would have to factor into this.

[@KINGCABA-if4nk]

You should do the subculture of old money aesthetics/yuppies/Preppy culture created by Gen Z and the Cosplay Poor with reverse snobby of rich/middle classes.

[@finnmcginn9931]

Im old, exactly how did Gen z invent things that were around long before they were born?

[@KINGCABA-if4nk]

@@finnmcginn9931 Great sarcasm- reinventing into the limelight as I don’t think you heard of ‘Quiet luxury ‘ (think of succession clothes) or ‘Old money aesthetic’ in those terms publicly, it’s very radical.

[@madamebkrt]

​@@KINGCABA-if4nkThen it's the terminology you're talking about, not the practice.

[@faeancestor]

@@KINGCABA-if4nk you might actually be below the 45th percentile ...

[@kenos911]

Old money aesthetic usually just means white people lol

[@SEB1991SEB]

I think Rick Sanchez from 'Rick and Morty' is one of the points you can look to for when being smart and interested in science (ie. nerdy) really became cool.

[@Im-BAD-at-satire]

Rick is a on point an anti-hero, also someone who is very high in intelligence but very low in wisdom or the mad scientist archetype, not a character anyone should achieve to become.

[@faeancestor]

@@Im-BAD-at-satire achieve to become

[@eeyorehaferbock7870]

And yet that didn’t stop the show from attracting a lot of the worst aspects of nerd culture within its fanbase as infamously demonstrated by both that one pretentious copypasta and the absolute chaos of the McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce incident.

[@Alertenstein]

Good video mate! the smart phone and social media is where things really changed. it opened the world it internet culture. I remember meme not being a widely used term before 2010, but after everyone and their mums got facebook in their hands, everyone knew what a meme was. It also opened the market to apps, so a coder with an eye for UI/UX could make billions by launching an app

[@papiiluvz]

I think anime also deserves its own section in this video. Although it’s still recent, anime as an entertainment medium is more embraced by the mainstream audience

[@sagemaster1357]

One thing I will say is that anime wasn't as mainstream as it is now. As someone who started watching anime in 2017, people were bullied for watching shows like DBZ or Naruto and now those same people are big fans now.

[@SoylentGamer]

Phineas and Ferb is probably my favorite example of late '00s nerd popularization

[@pistolen87]

Calling oneself a nerd is just another way of calling oneself an expert, but it sounds a bit less arrogant.

[@danteshollowedgrounds]

the word nerd use to mean like "smart" depending on who you really asked or in my case I just thought that was the main assumption of common knowledge but it turns out that everyone goes around using the word "nerd" nonsensically in the most derogatory way possible as of like it meant you was a "geek" in the sense of liking star wars or Galactica battle spaceships from outer space with aliens and crap.

[@boogers69420]

say yourself instead of oneself lol

[@creamyanddreamy4017]

@@danteshollowedgrounds Nerd was originally derogatory.

[@trolleriffic]

Being a nerd doesn't imply any level of expertise in itself. It's really just about having an obsessive interest in something, which can lead to expertise but often doesn't. I can say from personal experience that a lot of nerds/geeks like to flatter themselves that they're highly intelligent and intellectual (unlike those "dumb jocks"), but it's often just that we fell for our own hype.

[@ChristopherJames1993]

Nerds became chads.

[@aemediainc]

Not sure the true nerds really disappeared, the cool kids just appropriated their culture.

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

Great video, but Woz made the Apple computer. Steve sold it.

[@NoMadKid]

I miss those awkward/obscure gamers and their passion for gaming.

[@dylansherratt3801]

Ever since your emo video I would love a vid on punk rock and the bands in that culture and it’s impact on the uk and the rest of the world and how it destroyed itself

[@lupo3694]

Yes, please.

[@stephenjones5304]

Thirty years ago, wouldn't anyone walking down the street and staring at a little screen be thought of as a nerd?

[@Zjefke86]

This is brilliant. It seems like your writing and editing gets better with each video.

[@nathanlamont9920]

Which sucks is (I think) the people who grew up as being the stereotypical nerd in between the 70s and 90s, now miss the boat by being too old to enjoy the social expansion of nerdy culture. The fact you have someone who play "raid shadow legends" or watch marvel/DC movies calling themselves a nerd seems too artificial. Some (myself included) can't help to feel some sort of resentment (perhaps some jealousy) to modern nerd culture today. Especially with all the shit we been through because we played Dungeons and Dragons and Chrono trigger, we were cast out socially. Likewise, same thing happened when Pokemon Go blew up. Suddenly the cool people were "huge Pokémon fans" even though 2 minutes prior they laughed at their coworker for playing Pokemon at 35 years old. The s**t is so artificial

[@SurmenianSoldier]

nobody plays raid shadow legends seriously 💀

[@woolsockse.c5357]

as much as i miss the parkour videos this subculture series is really entertaining and clearly growing your channel keep it up

[@micosstar]

so ironic for nerds to be popular now from their roots of being bullied *sigh*

[@redacted5035]

Preps, cheerleaders and jocks really do ruin everything 😢

[@MrDaddyGazz]

America's then lol

[@redacted5035]

@@MrDaddyGazz ...wat?

[@surfingbrrrd]

Lol what? Stop watching movies. Vast majority of "popular" people are actually pretty nice, which makes sense since no one wants to be around someone who's unpleasant

[@boogers69420]

bro thinks it’s 1983

[@resonancetides7196]

I disrespect all these cheerleaders/popular kids crap.👎

[@faustsin9366]

Once Anime went mainstream in 2015 in America soooo many people with trendy stupid ideas became a part of a very welcoming culture. They increased the crazy toxic side of fandom tenfold. I remember hearing people be angry cause Ranma 1 1/2 did not address trans issues amoung other stupid things that would kill a show. Look what they did to RWBY.

[@dstroyer11YT]

For some reason, when I was growing up, my mom would say I looked like a nerd when I *DIDN'T* wear a tie and my shirt *WASN'T* tucked in. And this has persisted till now, and I don't know where she got her idea of the nerd look.

[@edpowers3764]

Nerds and gym bros are uniting into one. I love lifting but I also love philosophy, mathematics, physics, computer science and AI.

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

The ERA of MIKE MENTZER HAS BEGUN

[@314jrock]

Introvert culture is similar to nerd culture and it's going through the same thing.

[@trolleriffic]

Introverts don't have a culture. They may be interested in, or participate in cultures but there's no culture of introversion and never has been because there's a million different ways to be an introvert.

[@eeyorehaferbock7870]

@@danjoreddrelax, there’s no such thing. Signed, an introvert with no truly close relationships

[@father042]

The Big Bang Theory and its consequences have been a disaster for nerd culture

[@AlexanderJoneshttps]

Yeah it has

[@ninjaempire9093]

Jimmy your videos are absolutely incredible

[@MrLense]

For me the best Revenge of the nerds is basically how every "jock" or the athletic kids in school are all now in 25k - 30k jobs either as a estate agent or office jockey or other blue collar job, while all the "nerds" are in well paid, wealthy Tech jobs. The reason why our hobbies are now popular is cause we hold all the money, we get the cars that all the "cool" people used to want and all the geek girls have glowed up to e-girls and alt girls that people want too.

[@matthewdaniels2839]

Not sure it’s really accurate to put the 25k-30k label to those jobs you mentioned. Its not uncommon for blue collar workers and real estate agents end up earning more than people with degrees.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

You have really bought into the stupid jock trope American high school movies portrayed. Not every tech job makes a lot of money and not every geek ends up being Mark Zuckerberg. Everybody just grows up and there are plenty of ‘nerds’ still sitting in their mother’s basement at 30 just like there are many ‘jocks’ in dead end crappy jobs. On the flip side, there are plenty of ‘jocks’ that went to college and did just fine in life with well paying jobs without going pro athlete just like there are (some) people making good money at whatever possibly labeled geeky hobby they turned into a career. It’s a role of the dice for us all.

[@nopelol8718]

The biggest idiots I knew were technically nerds, some couldn't finish university, others have no idea how to find a well paying job, they have no idea how to invest or sell their knowledge efficiently, they are wage slaves. So no, being a nerd doesn't make you automatically rich.

[@Midtable1881]

Loving the videos Jimmy! Could I recommend you do a video on the ‘Big Gat Gypsy’ craze of the early 2010s? It started with those and ended with the Dale farm incident.

[@dylanbuchanan6511]

I REALLY like this video. It shows what I’ve suspected for years-that nerds were the philosophers and thinkers of their era and were generally well-respected…until the rise of modern culture that had very odd anti-intellectualism streak that ran through it. And “nerd” became a derogatory term rather than a means of assigning a degree of respect for people who loved knowledge.

[@Drakeawake]

What an awesome video I just subscribed and dude this video is so well put and carefully thought out. What an awesome video! New fan here!😅

[@arcwiz]

Honestly a problem with more nerdy things (japanese media, comics, ttrpgs, video games) becoming more mainstream, is the fact a lot of people will attatch themselves to it without appreciating it for what it is AKA "enjoying it for the wrong reasons". An example rn is the vtubing community, where a lot of newcomers will do nothing but critique other vtubers, start needless drama, and just ruin the fun for everyone.

[@Rucnas]

That's the problem with nerd culture. Most of them are not nerds. They just need to watch some marvel films and collect some funko pops.

[@mastercrazyyyd7699]

The issue with most people who deem themselves nerds based on the most outer layer of modern culture aren’t really nerds. I know this sounds like gatekeeping but it‘s more just a warning of what the mainstream media can do. Hell I‘m still bullied when I get nerdy about things like geography, history, or films, even by people who call themselves „nerds“. It‘s a culture that is not really aspired to by anybody but is only claimed for a new personality trait.

[@trolleriffic]

Out of interest, what age group are you in and in what context is this bullying taking place?

[@mastercrazyyyd7699]

@@trolleriffic Teen, almost 18. This bullying has been for basically most my time in school. I am mocked by popular girls and guys who wear Marvel shirts and say they‘re big time nerds. When I‘m with people who are nerds, as a hypothetical example, we can get into an in-depth conversation about a specifically well shot scene for it’s lighting and composition from an obscure 70‘s Portuguese art house film. If I leave that sphere of basic culture with most people, I‘m just ignored or laughed at.

[@user-ji9cz7mf2f]

​@@mastercrazyyyd7699 Fair enough that sounds horrid lad, although there are entire swathes of people in the alt scene that would enjoy your conversation

[@eurosonly]

I'm such a nerd that I'm playing runescape while watching this. Currently 2139 total level. I grew up playing it because my potato pc could not handle wow at that time.

[@JujuInFlames]

The definition of “nerd” became much more simplified as well. You didn’t have to cosplay, play rpgs, card games etc, you just have to buy sone funkos and watch stranger things. Much like anime, it’s become extremely diluted

[@humanblibord7386]

"nerd culture really is the case study on why it's sometimes better to let things be uncool...By trying to make people to see how fun our stuff was, we were brought about our own downfall"🤓

[@Antwannnn]

That guy was cringe lol Even worse, it got a lot of likes. "our own downfall" wtf does that even mean?? 😭 humanity?

[@YehiaRamadan-tu3qf]

If your failing school just say that bruh😭

[@AverageJoe777]

@@YehiaRamadan-tu3qf still going to a top 50 school and ill become ur manager cause im not a brokie like u nerd. 😂😂🚬🚬

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

As soon as something becomes mainstream, everyone who mocked this thing first suddenly wears it as if they always loved and understood it. They still don't really understand it though. Nerds and Geeks still exist and those are the ones who are still having the passion and the drive to bring mankind forward. And not just packaging it to make a quick buck from the ignorant masses. Personally i'm REALLY happy to see more and more young people also getting more into older tech and appreciating it, discovering it as something all new and really appreciating it with lovely KZbin videos and essays and just showing their love for it. This is why nerd culture isn't really dead. It is still alive. In the Mainstream there is no nerd culture. It is just consumerism culture with a lot of Nostalgia-bait.

[@Noir_Nouveau]

You gotta credit Marvel and DC being the social visionary for imagining what "nerds" can be i.e Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

how was bruce wayne a nerd lol?? I never really got it until justice league where they needed a brains for the team Superman was sufficiently intelligent who outwitted sphinx 5d creatures like Mxyzsptlk

[@marslowell3992]

Agreed. Too many fake nerds and gamers who have sneakily joined the space and are ruining it. The outsiders made it soo mainstream to the point that it's no longer popular because it was a temporary fad. SMH

[@trolleriffic]

When did video games not have at least some mainstream appeal? Or do you mean gamers in the sense of people who are totally obsessed with their hobby?

[@coindog6336]

What is a fake gamer?

[@bipinnambiar]

@@coindog6336 someone who reacts to game footage that is not theirs while claiming they made it.

[@lonelylad9818]

Who would've thought that people who spent their time learning and developing would end up better off than party animals?

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

yeah man the Paul and Tate brothers are so sad and not successful lmao

[@johnathanwelch1665]

Wait. If the nerds aren't being bullied anymore, who is?

[@SirIsaacClarke]

They still are.

[@vylbird8014]

Same old as ever: Any nonconformist.

[@DEAD-DROP]

Really well covered once again Jimmy!

[@guska0239]

yo these videos are really amazing, keep it up 🙏🙏

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

I think things have just shifted, there are still ‘nerds’. There are still socially inept people who don’t quite fit it. Playing a fantasy video game isn’t nerdy anymore, it’s mainstream. But tabletop gaming is still pretty niche for example. Everyone gets that computers lead to careers in multiple ways, so no one is nerdy by the default of being interested in them. Especially since kids grow up owning ipads and tablets now. There have always been smart popular kids with good grades despite what American high school movies would have you believe. The dumb jock is a trope not a truth. There are also dorks with bad grades, very interested in what they are interested in…like coding or whatever…but who struggle to keep up in school with anything they are not interested in. The imaginary nerd interested in everything stereotyped nerdy has always been a bit imaginary. Like science nerds and literature nerds tend to have VERY different things they are interested in. Yet TV nerds portrayed most ‘nerds’ as knowing shakespeare, bangers at chemistry, able to build robots, and also playing DnD on the weekend while being champions on the chess team. Tony Stark is not a nerd so much as a charismatic smart guy. Zuckerberg, I would say, is a nerd. There are folks that have seen every comic book movie, but never cracked a comic book and they will make fun of the guy who points out how issue 17 of whatever comic conflicts with the latest film. And books, the classic ‘nerd’ trope is still seen as pretty darn nerdy in comparison to general computer use or playing video games, which is pretty mainstream. What internet community has allowed is niche groups, who were perhaps weirdos for their likes and hobbies in their local ‘bubble’ to find each other more easily. And when you have the validation of a group somewhere, feeling lesser due to what you enjoy in your freetime not being ‘popular’ among the local kids/teens/adults is less isolating.

[@theodoremccarthy4438]

As you note: scholars, scribes, priests, philosophers, and sages were all historical prototypes of the nerd and were typically of high status in their societies. This means the real question is “Where did Jock culture come from and why did it die?” The answer is American Baby Boomer High School Culture. The baby boomers came of age in a time and place when a high school diploma was enough to secure a comfortable middle class job, and when the proliferation of education itself made the primary skills of the bookish intellectuals (literacy and numeracy) more common and thus less valuable. In such times of plenty charisma becomes more useful than competence, so the boomers fetishized the people who were popular in high school and denigrated the late bloomers who were still socially awkward at that stage. Flash forward thirty years and things had changed dramatically. The American working and middle class started to decline in the early 1970s, with the decline being undeniable by the late 80s and early 90s. This flipped the script as even the American left gave up on elevating the working class and instead insisted everyone should just get college degrees to ensure they could get jobs that paid enough to live comfortably. The tech boom hitting at the same time made the archetype of the nerdy intellectual seem even more successful and appealing, but the decline of the jock is even more interesting than the rise of the nerd. Consider that Married With Children premiered in 1987. Its main character was a former high school athlete who, as an adult, worked as a shoe salesman. He was trapped in a dead end job and loveless marriage with a nagging wife and two disrespectful children: a slutty daughter and a selfish son. That show ran for 11 years, making it one of the more successful sitcoms of the era. It was a testament to how the image of the working class former jock had declined even before the college educated nerd rose in prominence. As times get tougher competence becomes more important than charisma and as time goes one the socially awkward and skinny nerd often matures into a successful professional and gym-bro. The rise and fall of both jock culture and nerd culture have a lot to do with the refusal of the boomer to ever mature past high school, and the rest of us are now moving on and leaving their childishness behind.

[@shredkaczynski8414]

seems bs but I believe it

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

Peggy loved al and said she would never leave him she was lazy but loved him lol

[@scottlette]

The highlight for me will always be Matt Colveville referring to the Big Bang Theory as ‘Nerd and White Minstrel Show’. He wasn’t wrong, mind. I also loved the Satanic Panic, mostly because as a teen, it taught me a lot about just how my peers and adults were hilariously foolish. Nothing sadly has changed, just that I became that fool by age. ;) EDIT: No mention of LAN-parties?

[@raphlvlogs271]

nerd is an umbrella term thats why 1 individual thats considered to be a nerd can be drastically different to another 1

[@selbyhatcher1786]

Nerd transferred to hipster culture Back in the 2000s. Man when we was in high school then there’s was bullying going on of course, but the geeks were in most of the same circles as the popular kids, everyone was a bit more well-rounded and didn’t let how smart you were keep you from being sociable. There’s a bit more respect for them, probably because the tutor those who had a hard time in classes, and got a chance to see that they had similar experiences. At the end of the day your attitude determines how you experience life

[@piotrd7355]

F Steve Jobs, it was Steve Wozniak who did the heavy lifting.

[@Exceler8or]

love your vids like this man

[@imairwrecked3599]

I was a weekend nerd in the early 2000’s. I wouldn’t hang out or talk to the nerds during the week at school “ I was too cool for them”. However I was never mean to them because I was over at their house every weekend playing games and building pcs lol. It’s weird that honestly that was normal then. You didn’t want to be labeled a nerd and would do anything to avoid it. Even be stupid and ignore good people at school. Nowadays way diff. I feel like true “nerds” now are just the awkward weird people without social skill. Has nothing to do with tech and fantasy anymore.

[@NancyLebovitz]

One change you left out is that the size of groups matters. Science fiction fandom used to be like a small town. You could keep seeing the same people at conventions because there weren't that many people. There wasn't that much sf either. You could keep up with just about everything until the 80s, which meant people had a variety of shared references. You can have that kind of small town socializing is a very niche subculture, but I don't think it's the same. The background thing driving the story of the rise of nerdom might be called the return of the repressed. Fantasy is the basic form of human story-telling, but for about a century, fantasy was deeply unrespectable. Fiction was supposed to be about the real world, and the most respectable was supposed to educating the reader about real world problems. And then there was Lord of the Rings, and fantasy came back with a roar. Serious world-building is not a human default, but it's turned out to be something a lot of people want.

[@DomTomato]

You make good videos

[@Girrrrrrrr]

Another banger Jim!

[@scottianson5133]

There's still lots of groups that haven't been touched by the now cool curse. Come join us playing train sims.

[@knepri]

I'm 31, with an MD and PhD. Female. And...Yes, I still play Runescape. And I'm super excited about the new skill that is coming out in August! So nerds now run the world, yay?

[@Mr.YasQueen]

I wouldn't say they run the world, especially since nerd culture has been infiltrated a lot by non-nerds.

[@bankrupt_batman]

Nerd culture won't die. Preps and jocks will just move on to the next trend like they always do. The real nerds won't follow the sheep.

[@edwardhealey6783]

Great vid! Now get in the locker! lol Love you content Nerd

[@faustsin9366]

I have been doing editing for "trendy KZbinrs" who pretend to be really into all these games and animes talking about them, but really it is very surface level. Most big ones just have a passion for making content not the content itself.

[@adaptivelearner6162]

The way I see it is there has been a partition between socially inept isolationists who stay in their room most of the time, some of who'm may be intelligent, and the Jeff Beezos, Elon Musk, Simon Sinek, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Berners Lee, and Steve Jobs etc.... who are geniuses and very successful.

[@deaconlasagna8570]

spicy but honest: nerd culture isn't really a thing. you can't build a true culture around products, even if those products intersect with genuine DIY fan and creative communities. 'nerd culture' as we understand it was basically created by 80s movies. yes there was overlap between say wargamers, SF fans, computer programmers, and comic book collectors, but nerd didn't crystalize into something people identified with until relatively late in the gen x era, when people bought more and more into the post modern idea that our consumption habits are what create our social identities. broader nerd community only came into existence because we were all on the internet to try to connect with more people who shared our niche interests. really if a true nerd culture exists its just ALL of fandom, and i don't think most people who identify with nerd culture would claim this.

[@SEB1991SEB]

Yay, I wanted a video on this!

[@NY_Mountain_Man]

This video is really helpful. Thank you.

[@Tarquin2718]

I have always called myself a nerd. Since early 90s and I have always claimed the revenge of the nerds would be all compassing and everybody would become nerds ❤

[@siroshcelot]

written like a true nerd😂

[@Aki-kh2qe-StreetKidZZZ]

Personally I would say that trenders made it bad cause they wanted to be the center of attention and geek culture was started to be popularized and the greedy companies also played a part in it as to why it died

[@teamseventwo9010]

This is such a high quality video as your others are

[@RDJ134]

I didn't choose the nerd life, the nerd life chose me.

[@classicallibral5903]

I think you got it diagnosed wrong. It didn't die, it just got incorporated in to corporatism

[@Rucnas]

Yep! This is the problem. It brings too many fake nerds and dilutes the culture.

[@tatsuvoid]

Did the nerds make it, or did they just get pushed out of their own sub-culture. I'm a second wave geek (born in 70s) and the people we see representing nerd culture now are not the people I remember growing up with or seeing at an RPG convention. I kind of feel bad for some of these people because they're now pariahs within a subculture they helped set up. I know there was a lot of bad stuff in it but the thing I always loved is that it was a welcoming place for those who felt socially awkward and ostracised and I'm not sure that's still the case.

[@ElectrostatiCrow]

It's not. We've been gentrified.

[@tatsuvoid]

@@ElectrostatiCrow that's exactly what it is, shit 😕

[@AlexanderJoneshttps]

It's been ruined everything I used to love I hate it now because of the popularity

[@usagiwerd6664]

Your theory on the nose . This video was so good

[@ReubenAStern]

You're right! Jobs did have a inspirational hippy way of talking... because he was a hippy!