I’d like to make a point on the differences between nerds,geeks, dweebs, and dorks.

A geek is somebody who is passionate about or very knowledgeable in a specific field, or even a myriad of topics.  That’s why you have movie geeks, computer geeks, and other kinds of geeks.  You can also have basketball geeks, knife geeks, and geeks on other topics that most people don’t always associate with geekiness.  I’ll say it again, a geek is somebody who is passionate about a certain subject.  In other words, a geek is a fan, an enthusiast, or an expert.  Some will even go so far as to say that geeks are obsessed about or consumed by a certain subject.

This, by the way, is my personal definition of geek.  I’m a self-proclaimed geek, and I will admit to occasionally acting like a nerd.

This brings us to definition of a nerd.  My old definition of “nerd” was a socially-inept individual.  I have since revised that opinion and added definitions for both “dweeb” and “dork.”  However, no words I can put together are going to explain it better than the following diagram.

Great White Snark - Nerd, Dork, Geek Venn Diagram

First things first – I didn’t make this diagram.  I found it on Great White Snark.  If you don’t understand it (though I think most of you should get it), I suggest you read this Wikipedia article on Venn diagrams.

Going back to the diagram and difference between geeks, nerds, dorks, and dweebs, you can see that my definition of geek fits neatly into the diagram.  I know I only focused on the obsession aspect of being a geek, but I did mention that a geek is very knowledgeable about certain subjects, or is an expert.  Also, an obsession with a certain field usually leads to knowing more about it too – so a geek usually has that combination of intelligence and obsession.

At this point, more than half of the people who started reading this will have stopped reading – I’ve probably bored them out of their heads.  At this point, I’m acting like a nerd and scaring, boring, or basically driving people away.  Like I said, a nerd is a socially inept individual.  According to this diagram, a nerd is a socially inept geek.

Still based on this diagram, a nerd is an intelligent dork, or an obsessive dweeb.  I’m not going to define those terms anymore, because like I already mentioned, no words I can put together will explain it better than the diagram. Again, it’s not a diagram I came up with.  It’s something I found on Great White Snark.

Again, I’m a self-proclaimed geek, and I will admit to occasionally acting like a nerd.  If you don’t know what those terms mean, you’re a dork.