The Cult of Authenticity and the Death of Nerds

What it means to be yourself

Photo by Moises Alex on Unsplash

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In my opinion, nerds no longer exist. With that awesome teaser, let us begin.

Authenticity was declared the word of the year for 2023. Indeed, I have read lots about it online, and honestly, I have thought about authenticity for a long time. After all, it is a great word. We all want to be authentic, right?

No one volunteers to be inauthentic. To be called such a thing is slanderous and something just about everyone wants to avoid. Inauthenticity suggests fakery of some sort, as if a person is hiding something, and dishonesty also comes to mind. We assume anything that is not authentic must be of a lower quality than the genuine version of the particular thing.

I have also read about what some call the “cult of authenticity” which describes the fascination self-helpers, gurus, and others have with recommending that we all exude a certain “realness” that is true to who we are. It is quite easy to recommend being one’s real self, and is definitely a good thing to pursue, but is this the same as authenticity?

We all know the term cult is rarely used unless there is an inherent criticism involved. In other words, cult cannot be all good, and I feel commentary about the cult of authenticity includes a warning about allowing ourselves to miss the forest for the trees. In trying to be as genuine as possible, we can turn our lives into some copycat version of what we are supposed to do instead of who we are. For example, if I listen to too much guru-speak I might become what popular culture deems correct instead of embodying everything that I am and seek to become.

Forced authenticity, then, is almost the same as inauthenticity.

To repeat again, and to be absolutely clear, we must trust who we are and walk each day satisfied with that person representing us to the world. This is the way to the greatest contentment in life.

Getting real is all about listening to yourself. One must be mindful. When strong emotions envelop us, we must not ignore them. Let’s try not to act on every instinct all the time, but we should forever investigate each feeling to know why it is there. I believe I must ask myself: Why am I feeling this way and what is the root cause of it?

Authenticity is unmasking. Also, it is removing all the baggage the world has thrust upon you and living as radically indifferent to how others try to label you as one thing or another.

Labeling is never for the labeled, as it only serves to benefit those who seek to know people only by broad categories. This feels right and comforting to so many who have innate issues with open-minded acceptance. These people let fear rule their worlds.

But literally anything that humans concoct is taken to some extreme place. It is bound to happen to any idea. This is where authenticity as a great thing morphs into a cult of mindless followers.

The interest in mental health, that is all the rage, is a good thing. However, the downside is too much self-diagnosis (I am not against it as a thing) and wild assertions that we can pronounce ourselves whatever we dream up. Cultists are the most likely to espouse the trademark words of the self-proclaimed mentally ill: “I am so OCD.”

Authenticity is not about inventing an association with singularity but is instead embodying what is already unique about you.

With this in mind, I declare that nerds are no more. That is right. We have become so authentic that no person can claim nerdom. Before anyone panics, I want to state on the record that I love nerds. The people who were once called such things were (and are) practically always helpful and not harmful to our world.

To try to define nerds, I will offer this: Nerds are those who are obsessed with niche topics and are compelled to investigate those topics with rigor despite any consequences. In addition, nerds must express awkwardness with fitting in or with fulfilling some social responsibility.

Lastly, to qualify as a nerd one must be competent doing his or her special interest and be less than good at talking about/advertising that interest to others. In other words, a nerd is someone who is good at the thing itself but not talking about the thing or proclaiming their ability to do that thing. Does that make sense?

If you take the inverse of that, then we have a large chunk of the population and the kind of person who is a “dime-a-dozen.” We see or hear them everywhere. These are the con-artists, and they tend to be successful.

The cons never need to be good at or even participate in what they claim as a passion. They are excellent at playing the part of a nerd and will often be called that very thing; do not be fooled ladies and gentlemen, as they were never nerds in the first place.

A nerd will most often fail to rise to the level of self-promotion that equals their talent in music, computers, drawing, video games, or endless other pursuits. The inability of a person to invent reality to suit their present needs is one thing that establishes their nerd membership.

Now that all still matters to individuals, but as a whole the nerd thing is over.

Now, everyone is a niche. We (I am brazenly speaking for the world) are fine with you getting lost in the minutiae down in the depths of any hobby or interest. The stranger the better. We think it is cute when you express what you are into—as long as it is not a truly disturbing thing—because then you are quickly moved into narcissist/serial killer territory.

There is no embarrassment anymore. All quirks are applauded. As far as awkwardness, it only makes you more attractive and human. Everyone claims to be an introvert, it seems, which I take offense to as a surefire, no question about it, introvert. I sense someone, somewhere, has uttered the words: “I’m so introverted!” Though, I cannot prove it.

If we are “all in” with strangeness, then everyone is comfortably awkward. Authenticity guarantees that you are “A okay” no matter who you are and what you do. By the way, I am fine with the death of nerds. It only means that we are more thoughtful and nerdier.

I pay attention to the world of art like some do computers, technology, business, or politics. Artists tend to be eccentric, and that makes them (can I say us?) plenty authentic. Creative types do not even need much exposition as to their nerdiness, as it should show in their creations.

I believe as the world makes it harder to feel authentic, we shout our authenticity ever louder in an attempt to separate from the herd. Plus, each of us feels unusual to some degree, because we are biased. We judge ourselves against what we believe most people feel, and how they think, and put all of “them” in either the normal or abnormal grouping.

Therefore, we are unique compared to the rest of the world whether that is for the positive or negative. “No one understands me,” is how the sentiment is often stated. And maybe every person is right about that, not sure.

Really, a mental health self-diagnosis is a useful method to advertise one’s authenticity. Mental health is supposedly “in our heads” after all, so some figure that their OCD, or whatever else, cannot be unproven. We might hear, “If only you knew what goes on in my mind…”

Well, I want to try to write shorter stories, but the nerd in me likes the feeling of routinely doing the same thing over and over. Maybe I am authentically bad at choosing topics. Or, it is very possible that my insistence on working toward originality, and refusing to write the usual fluff, might be keeping my stories authentically unread.

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