Nerd

This, too, is a word! This one refers, variously, to people who wear thick-framed fake glasses to take selfies, people who get better grades than average, and people who play either ADOM, D&D, both, or some comparable combination. A "nerd" is, in its most common application, anybody who doesn't get their kicks through the ordinary routes of team sports and/or casual promiscuity.

First, we have the self-advertised "neeeerrdddyyyy" people. We're not going to talk extensively about these people, because they're horrible. You know the ones I mean. Yes, you do.

Second are the semi-legitimate nerds. These ones don't necessarily wear fake thick-framed glasses, but neither is it a rule that they don't. These people have about a 50% chance of "liking school" or, at earlier stages of life, "reading books" and such things. You might catch them "studying," even. This classification of nerd as been known, in many cases, to own something called a "MacBook Pro."

The third category of nerd  is deeper and darker. These people might wear thick-framed glasses not because they're just suh cayute, but because they actually require some kind of vision aid. The traditionally-held belief is that this impairment is a result of staring at books/computer screens/tiny jewels/ancient artifacts. These ones traditionally shun sunlight and interpersonal interaction entirely. To give you an idea, they don't play any team sports, at all!

Right, now that I'm done being bitter about all the profiles I fit, let's discuss his word "nerd." I would unquestionably fit into the third category, in no small part because I use words like "unquestionably" instead of "totally (breh)." I have also been known to Dungeon some Dragons from time to time, and I actually go to my classes because I like them.

Now, nerds (especially of the higher orders) are held to be a very small and much-abused minority in our culture. These poor kids get swirlies in high school, don't get dates to prom, and later become the Unabomber. Shucks, this high school movie's rough.

My opinion, however, is that the set "people who are nerds" includes everyone.

No, sorry, just checking to see if you were awake. Let's try that again.

Everyone.

But not everyone is in a board gaming group, or likes computers, or plays with telescopes in their spare time! That's true, but in my estimation that isn't what it means to be a nerd.

A nerd is someone with a deep-seated fascination (some might say fixation) with a particular thing, to the exclusion of other activities. They never go outside because they're tinkering with computers all day. They never play team sports because they're reading books.

Well, I got new for y'all. Everybody has a deep-seated fixation on something, and yours is no more or less valid than mine. They're incompatible, yeah, but they're all valid. Your fixation may well be team sports or hanging out in large crowds of strangers, but that doesn't mean my inclination to read books is wrong. That type of thinking, "I am right; ergo you are wrong," is playground logic, and it doesn't do to have adults thinking that way.

TL;DR We're all nerds, just for different things.