I just finished reading this fantastic essay about the popularity of nerds. It just makes too much sence.

[link]

To summarize: (it's a very long essay)
The writer stipulates that middle school and highschool are becoming too meaningless. We all study for and practice things which serve no meaningful purpose. We're too inconvienient for adults to have around as teenagers, and yet we are not skilled enough to take part in society - as jobs these days are increasing demand for speciality. Where else do people go who do not fit properly in society? Prison maybe? We all know prison exists to simply fill in the days of criminals under supervision until their sentance is over.

You could safely assume that highschool is infact a similar system. Teachers are there to deliver a curricullum, but that's as far that their responsibility goes. When teachers aren't around, we are left to make our own world, with no real goals other than to look popular. Prison guards are there to keep all the inmates inside, but they do not care what hierachies are made inside, and they don't care how horrible it can be for the people in the lowest tier. It's not their job.

The reason that nerds are unpopular then, is that we care more about the real world than the fake one constructed by popularity in highschool. We don't try and be popular all the time, we have goals and want to be better at whatever we are interested in. Becoming the best at something takes endless effort and dedication, as you might know. We can't spend all our day trying to be popular and have a social life if our hobbies and obsessions require constant attention.

That about sums it up in a nutshell. Brilliant essay. I reccomend it to anyone!

So anyway, tell me if you agree with the essay or my summary. hopefully there are others who see the truth in all this.

Having said that, it feels like I've fallen into this trap so neatly. Trying to specialize in skill, sacrificing many other areas of my life in the process.... and seeing so much of society as being cruel and/or useless. No wonder I feel down at times, right?
No wonder I like fantasy genres so much, because they represent things which are the opposite of useless, ugly and boring.

Since specialization and technology is the way of the future, it seems inevitable that the "nerd like" qualities society will need from future generations will be the very ones which make us awkward and unhappy, if the other half of our society is taught to be the docile consumers who leave all the work to someone else.


_{In other news, I got my sexy black mp3/video player! it pwns so much! <3 lookie! [link]}