Why nerds and technology go hand in hand
Throughout my years of watching movies and selling electronics, I’ve noticed a trend that I find a bit amusing and might help explain how we *cough* “know” who the nerds are… Technology. Say what you will about nerds, nerds and technology are almost interchangeable terms. Regardless of anything else they’re a fan of, nerds LOVE their technology and are often early adopters of the latest technological advancements.
People, (and by people, I mean generally and not specifically), foster a love/hate/fear relationship with technology. When we first get a new tech gadget, we love it. We love our cars, computers, cell phones, tablets, cameras, and all of our gadgets and cheery little gadgets that accompany modern life. Once our device doesn’t work *exactly* the way we want it to, we get upset. We fear life without them and we fear life with them. People often take out their frustrations on innocent pieces of electronic equipment. (I once threw my cell phone across a room when I was having a fight with my then-boyfriend. The phone miraculously survived.)
In the more than 1,000 movies I’ve seen in my life, a common theme emerges. Even in some of the oldest movies made, “fear of technology” is a predominant theme. In the first science fiction film, Metropolis (1927), a robot woman destroys the city. In Modern Times (1936), Charlie Chaplin, a factory worker, has a nervous breakdown due to his high-stress technological job. In a range of more recent movies like the Terminator series, the Transformers series, and I, Robot (2004), just to name a few, technology is a threat. Technology rises up against carnal creators (or mere humans) and destroys society.
Humanity in these movies is also partially saved by technology. The Terminator’s John Conner is repeatedly rescued by technology as he seeks to destroy it. The Deceptacons, usually military and non-automotive robots, cause massive amounts of destruction on Earth while Optimus Prime (an 18-wheeler) and his Autobots (a variety of cars, trucks, and forms of civilian transportation) save us. This also shows a slight fear of a military invasion, a concern that the war has ruined our society.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons we fear technology is that technology eliminates our need in the workplace: people are replaced by machines, meaning fewer people are needed to perform the same functions. What good are real babysitters when we can have a robot babysitter? In I, Robot, society has adapted and become accustomed to the overabundance of robots: they do all the work that we don’t want to do ourselves. The robots are constrained by rules to protect us, until they turn against humanity because VIKI, the central ‘brain’ of the robots, has determined that humanity cannot take care of itself.
But what does this have to do with Nerds, you ask? Let me explain.
In movies and in real life, nerds embrace technology and make it their own. Nerds are early adopters of new technologies like computers, internet, e-readers. Cell phones are an exception, but mainly due to the cost of early cell phones.
In the Revenge of the Nerds movies, the nerds perform computer-based music. In Weird Science, the nerds build a perfect woman (although she wreaks havoc, the nerds were the ones who knew how to do it) due to her inability to approach girls. They are not really trying to replace women, but to learn how to talk to them. In Growing Pains, nerdy Carol Anne Seaver once dreams of owning a modem. In the television series Chuck, the “Nerd Herd” works in computer repair. Hackers are really just a bunch of nerds who use their superior knowledge to ‘hack’ government databases. While he is heroic in the movie, the threat of hackers and people stealing our information from the internet is very real. Even Tony Stark Iron Man is a nerd with money – the comic book fan’s dream of being rich with all the technology and skill to become a superhero role.
The men (and some of the women) in The Big Bang Theory are nerds. They are also cutting-edge scientists who study string theory, space, theoretical physics, things that confuse a lot of laymen like Penny the normal. But, men created things like a zero gravity toilet.
Nerds are often the ones who *embrace* technology because they create it. Real-life “nerds” Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have had a tremendous influence on everyday life. It is the nerd who has the ability, the knowledge and the intellect to create, think about the future, generate new ideas and answers to the problems that are presented to society.
It’s the nerd who fixes the technology. We go to nerds when our computer crashes, when we can’t fix our cell phone, when we don’t know how to set up our new TV system. Now, I’m not saying that nerds fix cars, but nerds do design cars and test them.
This embrace of technology is perhaps why stereotypical nerds love the sci-fi genre: sci-fi shows a world where all the nerds’ hard work has paid off.