geeks/nerds/asd

[Aspychata]

That's a great point, nerd equals looking at the technical side of everything.

 

[tazz]

up the wahoo

You said "up the wahoo"

 

[VictorR]

I like to think of ASD as constant nerd-mode, whereas NTs can kind of drift in and out.

I concur.

I've seen non-masking autistics who want to spend every moment talking to people about their special interests, and quite often talking about something specific repeatedly, and enthuiastically wishing to share their thoughts or knowledge about something, and not necessarily picking up cues or recognizing that they may have made the same infodump to the same person already.

 

[Aspychata]

Maybe then you are autistic if you info dump about your special interest 24/7, and still can be quite nerdy.

 

[vergil96]

and enthuiastically wishing to share their thoughts or knowledge about something, and not necessarily picking up cues or recognizing that they may have made the same infodump to the same person already.

Sometimes you just don't want to notice I think there is an unfair assumption that someone does something, because they don't *know* better. Sometimes you're perfectly aware, but just don't *want* to do the thing that others would like you to do.

Can you be autistic and not be nerdy?

That is going to be a nerdy answer - they might not fulfil other diagnostic criteria than special interests

 

[Aspychata]

Think even nerdy people may not recognize they dump special interests on everyone, because we assume everyone talks like that. I know l walked around thinking that everyone over analyzed just like me.

 

[Ella Spell]

Define nerd.

 

[Aspychata]

Yes, feel free to define nerd. Special interests boarding on technical side is my first thought , what do others think?

 

[Au Naturel]

When I was a kid a nerd was someone who was preoccupied by one or more fields of knowledge and lacked social skills. Both qualities had to be included. If you had social skills you were elevated to the level of scholar.

 

[Aspychata]

Then it morphed into including computers. But yes, socially lacking skills. I always like people like this because there are no pretenses that l am trying to scale.

 

[Boogs]

Tending toward the minutia and fine detail to an exacting degree?

 

[Ella Spell]

I don't know what a nerd is. I think the sterotype is anyone who doesn't fit in socially because of being insecure rather than being aggressive. I think they're expected to be physically weak with poor muscle tone. Maybe they're into computers. I have no idea what it means. I've never even watched shows like The Big Bang to know what the hype is all about with smart misfits.

When I was young Happy Days was a big thing. Extroverts were cool, and Fonzie was "the coolest". I don't think they used the word nerd (or maybe they did?) but the idea was that Richie was a nerd because he was socially uncomfortable, responsible, and very honest. He didn't dress much differently from the other guys his age so I don't think appearance had anything to do with it. His interests weren't clearly defined either, except that he wasn't a jock and didn't race cars. I think Potsy might have been a nerd too but sadly that was likely because he was portrayed as kind of effeminate because he was expressive.

I don't think autism has anything to do with being a nerd. We might be socially awkward but that's about it. I'm socially awkward but my interests are pretty mainstream. I don't walk around with tape on my glasses and I don't look scrawny or weak.

 

[Human Avatar]

I wear glasses like this if that counts

 

[Aspychata]

That's why l needed to ask this question. What does nerd really mean? Is it more acceptable now? In the past if you called someone a nerd, it was considered derogatory, now, l can feel comfortable calling myself a bit of a nerd. I can become engrossed delving into my operating software on my system and trying to break it down, just because.

 

[Ella Spell]

Yeah, I understand but I don't know.

I don't think of myself as a nerd but maybe I don't know what a nerd is.

Am I a social reject? Yes

Does that make me a nerd? I don't think so, but idk.

 

[Au Naturel]

I suppose we could use this as a standard reference:

 

[Aspychata]

Maybe it's just more acceptable to be a social reject these days. I don't feel that l must have friend (s). Where as a teen, my mom was unhappy that l clearly wasn't a social butterfly. In fact, when l told my mother l was getting married in my 40's, she said she was surprised, she didn't think l would ever marry. Maybe the decision of nerd has evolved or it just means different things to different people.

 

[Aspychata]

Urban Dictionary definition of nerd:
A person who, when they don't know what a sexual related word means, they look it up in the urban dictionary.
A geek who either lacks social skills or else simply prefers solitary pursuits.
A four-letter word with a six-figure income.

 

[Progster]

You can be nerdy without being autistic, and autistic without being nerdy. Being autistic means that you have deficits in non-verbal communication and often so-called special interests, but that doesn't nesessarily make you a nerd. My dad used to infodump and monologue a lot, but he wasn't autistic.

 

[Boogs]

Personally, the way our global societies have seemed to have gone, being a social misfit these days is surely just a logical reaction to a world gone institutionally or systematically insane?
How much does anyone who's put serious thought into our common situation, want to associate themselves with the really rather scary direction we seem stuck in, like a rabbit in the headlights, through inability to change or enable change?
We can't shake off the conditioning that's lead to these globally, even existentially bad decisions we've all made up to now (on a population level at least), so the changes required for species survival are beyond us as a species (and only as a species can we turn things around).