First and foremost, nerds lead secluded and private lives. They keep to themselves and rarely do they interact with others, except their fellow nerds. Their minds are more focused on real life issues in the world rather than making friends and becoming popular.
Secondly, they rarely look appealing from the outside, especially in terms of dressing. This is because outward appearances do not perturb them. A nerd hardly has time to go shopping in the mall searching for the latest trends. As such, people dismiss them too soon, before even getting to know them better.
Thirdly, nerds possess unique gifts that are uncommon to many in society. They are gifted intellectually, making them more knowledgeable and smarter in class than other students. The truth of the matter is that most kids admire nerds to an immense extent but are just too proud to admit it, or are afraid of getting ostracized as well. Nerds possess many other admirable qualities that make them slightly different from others.
The first reason why teenagers label others nerds is so as to make themselves feel better. They constantly tease and make fun of them so as to hide the fact they do not possess nearly as much knowledge and skills as the nerds do. In any social hierarchy, those unsure of themselves reveal it by ill treating those that they think are of low rank. Research proves that poor whites in the U. S. are more hostile to black people as compared to wealthy whites.
Another reason for labeling nerds is to maintain popularity. Popularity is all about being close to other people and deriving admiration from them. In order to achieve maximum popularity in schools, students label others so that they can draw a following of other students, who will term them as being ‘ cool’. As such, when the cool student teases the nerd, the rest of the students will do just the same, because they also want to be cool like their leader.
Labeling of nerds could be attributed to immaturity of teenagers. Since they are still half children, teenagers can do foolish things. It is astounding to note that adults hardly tease nerds or even notice them. In fact, they revere them, because they understand that they possess unique gifts. In adulthood, nerds are the ones who make decisions in a society that affect vast regions and even the entire globe.
Lastly, teenagers label and torture nerds because they lack conscience. When conscience kicks in, there are some things that one finds difficult to do. For example, a child may not find it wrong to pluck a butterfly’s wings or pull a spider’s legs. This is because the child is innocent and lacks conscience to tell him/her that it is wrong to do so.
Labeling can have some irreversible effects on a person’s life. One of the effects is that a teenager can get frustrated and eventually suffer from depression. Depression at an early age is dangerous for a teenager, because it makes him llose out on opportunities. They also withdraw from the real world and dwell in their own world which they have formed in their mind. As such, coping with life’s stresses becomes difficult for such a teenager.
Another effect is that the labeled teenager may become suicidal. Depression can easily make such a person suicidal. One can think that suicide is the only viable option. Hormones at teenage level also worsen the situation by making someone feel like the whole world is against them; hence, they begin to entertain thoughts of suicide.
Some nerds also become rebellious. They openly defy orders because they perceive themselves as better than others. Later in life, it becomes difficult to maintain employment because of this rebellion.
Some of them start drug and substance abuse. This is in an effort to make themselves popular. As such, they become addicts of these drugs and later in life, miss out on opportunities.
Other effects include being hateful, mood swings, lack of enthusiasm, mental disorders due to stress, etc.
Nerds need to realize that they are a step ahead of other people. It is hard to find a successful person in life who does not claim to have been a nerd when he/she was young. One excellent example of a nerd who changed the world is Bill Gates. Lastly, the label is not a determiner of one’s status in life; rather it is an indication of the idleness of those that came up with it.
