Question for the teenagers
 

Ok, I'm officially old, and I'm ok with that.

I've got a dumb old person question for the teenagers here, so parents, pass this on if you would.

I'm wondering whether teenagers use the terms "nerd" or "geek" as an insult anymore. It may be hard for a 14 year old to understand, but when I was in high school, these words were NOT cool. Even those of us in the outcast group didn't use them lightly. Witnessing the transformation of these terms has been surprising. Now everyone bandies them about as badges of honor.

Do these words still have any bite left, or are they actually used as compliments? What words are used today by teens to mean "awkward social outcast"? Dork, spaz, freak? I guess you can take a few out of the list and there are still plenty to use, as well as new ones us ancient ones haven't heard yet.

Geek and nerd are generally positive and even dork at times. My friends and I don't really say bad things about other people, unless they're really horrible. Then, it's asshole. :D

I will ask The Boy when he gets home. He does call himself a computer/gaming geek and even a nerd at times.

CP, I think my experience of those words when I was a teenager was differnet than yours. I don't recall viewing them as particularly insulting and we were definitely very free in using the terms (nerd more than geek) to label ourselves as well.

For me, while within my peer group we never had a problem calling ourselves nerds or geeks, but they were still used as insults towards us by people outside our group.

I've got 2 teens here this morning....as soon as they return from the donut shop I'll ask them.

Nerd and geek are the new sexy.

Perhaps my particular group of nerds was extra sensitive to the term. We knew we were nerds but I recall that we only said it when we really wanted to cut into each other. It had a stone thrown in a glass house, pot calling the kettle black feel.

Our group was truly a loose association of outcasts who had been tossed from other groups, so "nerd" stung quite a bit. I think "dork" was a more affectionate, joking term.

From Wolfette & friend (we can call her Wolfgal): bitch, slut, rat faced bitch, horseface, dicks, losers, loners, fags (excuse the girls they are being honest).

Hahahahaha. Yeah, even back in my day, we were much too foulmouthed to use "geek" or "nerd" for those we were disparaging.