Nerd Culture

Nerd culture involves so many different elements including video games, comics, and internet memes. These things are often times bashed on by individuals who believe that they  are “dumb” or they call the people “losers”. However, they may just be blind to see what nerd culture really does for the world.  In fact, nerd culture has a positive impact on nerds and the people around them because it helps them find an enjoyable place in the world where they can thrive.

A typical form of nerd culture that has been popular ever since the early 50’s and 60’s is comics. Some adults see reading comics as a  waste of time, but according to Scholastic, a publishing and education company, comics are extremely beneficial to children. Most children are visual learners, and it helps to see pictures that match the words. If most kids are visual learners then comics should help them with most of their studies. On the parents section of Scholastic website, the writer mentioned that a lot of plays from Shakespeare have a comic version. Children could learn about the importance and essence of a Shakespeare play without having to deal with the difficult language in the original play. This will slowly introduce the children to the topics, and as they become older they will have knowledge of Shakespeare.

Another very cliche model of the nerd culture is video games. People have made many different accusations about video games, one is that they are very unhealthy. A study done by Texas A&M University has given some insight on how video games help with stress management and lowers the chances of someone developing depression. The study involved 103 students that were all given a frustrating assignment, then they were randomized to either play a violent of nonviolent video game. The results of the study suggested that someone that plays a lot of violent games will become less hostile with something called mood management. Mood management is the consumption of some entertainment has the possibility of altering someone's mood. This suggests that  video games release all of the stress that an individual is holding in. The video games acts as some sort of escape from reality. Somewhere an individual can go to do whatever they want. Although some games may be extremely graphic or horrifying to some, it may actually help others go through life with a smile on their face because it releases negative feelings instead of encouraging them.

Internet memes are especially popular among the gaming community. Meme’s are definitely frowned on by many, and are often seen as insensitive and rude. People can be both of those things, it depends on what kind of person they are. Memes can help some people with issues they have with the world or even themselves. Motherboard, a website published by Vice, wrote an article about popular memes and Facebook thread about the recent Irma issue. A line from the article reads, “As the impending disaster barrels down on the southern shores of the US, residents are turning to an unlikely source for comfort: ironic event pages.” this shows that memes can help. While everyones houses and neighborhoods are being a torn apart by Irma, they feel sad and helpless. They cannot do anything to stop what is happening. It’s out of their control. What they can do, is laugh. Laughter helps when all they can do is hope for the best.  Notice the word “ironic”. The people are not laughing because they actually think that the disasters are actually funny, they are laughing to numb the pain. They would rather find comfort in laughter then sit in a laughless room where all everyone is doing is worrying.

If people who dislike comics stopped to think about it, they would realize that nerd culture is not just about being a loser who reads comics, plays dumb games, and looks at unfunny internet memes, but has a deeper affect and positive benefit on people. Nerd culture has a beneficial effect on the world, it educates our children, helps release stress, and helps many individuals numb their pain with laughs.