What/who brought you into "nerdism?"

[bulbasaur765]

It was the video games that got me into nerdism. Then when I was introduced to the internet my brother and I started listen to video game soundtracks from the games we owned for hours. After that came the point where I started to look up video games and their differences in the Japanese and Western releases (Pokemon Red & Green/Blue, Sonic CD soundtracks, SMB2/Doki Doki Panic, etc.)

 

[MPerce]

My parents, though I'm not sure if that was their intention.

The first movies I ever watched were Star Wars, probably about a month after I was born. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have original trilogy almost completely memorized, line for line, music cue for music cue. This makes watching the Special Editions quite difficult, since my brain gets really confused every time a scene is different from the original cut (it nearly exploded when I saw the new palace song in Return of the Jedi).

Star Wars is a part of my DNA. There was no way I couldn't become a nerd.

 

[Johnny Impact]

TL/DR: restrictive parents, my own interest, ostracism by peers, natural intelligence.

I don't like sports because my folks don't like sports. I believe fandom is usually inherited. Not liking sports meant I had to like *something*. Nerdy stuff was as good as anything else.

I got into books, video games, and comic books because my mother was paranoid and excessively restrictive. I wasn't allowed out of sight of my folks' house until I was thirteen? All the neighborhood kids could go wherever they wanted, which meant they were always far away. Without much in the way of real-life friends or outdoor activities, I turned to worlds of imagination.

I always sucked at sports, which gets you pigeonholed as geek, fag, lamer, whatever the word of the moment is. Coming up through school, whatever the best athlete says about you is as good as true. This further encouraged me to keep my head down and not talk, living inside my own mind.

I consistently score 98th-99th percentile on intelligence tests. I waltzed through school without effort and everyone knew it. I won't say I was terribly interested in the coursework but I read a great deal outside the textbooks. I actually enjoy knowing how fast light travels in a vacuum, how methane molecules are structured, things like that. If you aren't already considered a nerd, knowing that kind of thing will seal the deal.

 

[AlexKasper]

My brother bought me a GBA with Super Mario World on my seventh birthday. I got into anime when a friend of mine showed me Death Note and I branched off from there.

 

[Jeff Gennick]

When I was younger I always wanted to be an astronaught. I saw a guy playing an awesome looking space game. Freelancer. I played that for years, still do. It captivated me and my imagination. I loved the story, the setting, everything. Then I moved onto Starlancer, then I made more use of the internet, and it kinda spiraled from there.

So I guess you could say the stars guided me on my path to nerdism. xD

 

[burningdragoon]

I was born into a family that already had Nintendo Entertainment System. And I don't have any memories before we had a Super Nintendo Entertainment System. (I was 4 years old when it was released).

 

[GregerFisk]

When I was about ten years old I started reading fantasy books. 3-4 years later I got to know three of my nowadays closest friends. They were playing 'paper and pen' rpgs and video games. So I got into that to.

 

[saoirse13]

My Uncle conditioned me from an early age with star wars, I watched it every time he babysat me, it went on to battle of the planets, transformers, the old batman, superman, and their comics. And now we still contantly watch them all and play numerious v'games. Though it was my bf that got me into WoW. Which im totally addicted to.
Though I don't think it's geeky or dorkish, but i suppose thats the labels you get these days.
I will say being obsessed with Robot wars is probably the most geeky thing for me. But it was great.

 

[Karoshi]

My parents started an internet cafe when I was four. Gamers all over the town came to kick each others ass and the young impressive me looked up to them as the coolest teenagers in the world. Also, I played quite a few games myself and, unsurprisingly, sucked at them.

Good times. All stopped when I became 8 and we moved to another country.

Since then, I blame the internet on me growing up a nerd.

 

[Jark212]

When my dad bought me a Gameboy Color with Pokemon Blue for a road trip, and the rest is history.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

My Dad I guess, he bought me my Atari 2600 off a mate when I had a massive temper tantrum when we had to leave. I was 3.

SO IT BEGINS.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

I was a child with an overactive imagination who saw Star Wars at a young age and was born into a household with a Nintendo. It was inevitable.

At that point, I might as well have just told my dad that putting me on the school soccer team was a complete waste of time.

 

[Petter Nordenstorm]

Christianity, probably. I liked games well enough before my conformation but during that time I met many likeminded people with a great interest in nerdy things that dragged me deep down in to the pit that is called Nerddom : )

 

[geK0]

I suppose my father when he picked up an NES when I was 3; I remember walking into the first goomba in super mario world and crying.


edit: I swear I've made this post in 20 threads by now.