It is such a common element of culture but when I look closely it doesn't make too much sense.
What are the general characteristics of a nerd?
- Smart and interested in academics.
- Physically underdeveloped and bad at sports.
- Socially awkward and unattractive.
Does this cluster make sense to you?
Sure, health problems can make you both unattractive (and subsequently awkward) and small/weak/uncoordinated. But what do smarts have to do with this? I'm guessing statistically a healthy kid is likely to do better at school than an unhealthy one.
So how do nerds come to be?
Is that because kids who don't do well socially are more motivated to excel academically?
Do smart cool athletic kids refrain from getting into nerd stuff because it's frowned upon in the cool circles?
Is being a nerd a sort of a "mild" autistic spectrum thing?
Also, a follow up question. Are nerds actually smarter on average by any measurement? Why or why not?
It WAS, at one point a way to try to shame a person who was spending lots of time doing a thing that other groups/society labeled as "not a good use of time" or "you're really in to something that won't help you socially."
You could be a kid and kill yourself, sometimes literally, by playing sports in school and nobody would have batted an eye in the 80's/90's. You could be a straight A student, winning academic contests but so long as you had some ability to function socially, you'd be showered with praise.
BUT, if you were really into heavy metal or collectible card games or video games, reading fiction, well then "You aren't spending your time wisely, you're spending too much time focusing on something that won't help you interact socially with other people. Stop being a nerd."
This has changed as time as gone on, things that were very niche have become embraced by society, and it just means somebody who's good at or very knowledgeable about video games, book learning stuff, comics, cartoons/anime that extends into adulthood.