Coolness, Nerdiness and Pseudo-Maturity

Not long ago I had occasion to write about just what "coolness" tends to come down to--foolish posturing as untouchably above everything, especially by those who are absolutely conventional and conformist, but richer and freer than everyone else, such that it is easy for them to appear "confident," extroverted, even stupidly swaggering. Among the young, pseudo-maturity tends to play a significant part in this--the "cool kids" the ones who can pose as more adult than the others, in part because they are more indulged than the others. (For instance, they might drive to school a car their teachers can only envy, as many of their peers take the bus or, more comfortable if looking less independent, get driven to school.)

Being the opposite of cool on these points would seem to have a lot to do with the nerdy image. Instead of stupid pretenses to being everything and untouchable the nerd is stereotypically shy and timid--and often less than conventional and conformist and free. And far from conveying an impression of pseudo-maturity the nerd stereotype suggests immaturity--persons who are less physically and socially developed than they ought to be at their age (hence the nerd as scrawny and awkward), who are more attached to childish things (the conventional view of the "geek" culture of science fiction, comic books, video games, etc. has long been that these things are childish), and less independent than their cool counterparts (prone to stay at home, more attached to and deferential toward their parents).

Given the media's vehemence in associating intelligence with wealth it today seems commonplace to make the nerdy kid a rich kid--but especially given the class baggage that plausibly played its part in the development of conceptions of "nerdiness," it does not seem a stretch to think that the conception of the nerd as we know it is significantly a legacy of a time when it was not those born to privilege but those less well-positioned in society by birth and trying to get ahead who hit the books hardest, and whose social origin constrained them to playing it safe.