Nerd Love

While browsing the internet, I came across an article about a NYU student who grew tired of “coming home to an empty bed.” His solution? He created a virtual girlfriend. She’s a two dimensional image that lays next to him in bed. When he rolls onto his side, she ’spoons’ him. When he kisses her on the cheek, she turns onto her stomach. Cool? Yes. A little bit sad? I’d have to say yes to that as well.

This time and effort he put into creating this virtual girlfriend (who does not remove any of her clothes while in bed) could have been used to get a real girlfriend (who may actually remove her clothes). Not only that, but this kid goes to NYU. New York University has about a 40:60 boy to girl ratio, with 25% of the male population being gay. This gives NYU guys an advantage, 30 straight men to 60 girls. The numbers work in his favor! Factor into this that many of the NYU girls will lower their standards to be with somebody – I’ve had to sit one or two of my girlfriends down and ask them what the hell they were doing. Some, not all, girls are desperate to be in a relationship…ANY relationship. So why didn’t this kid go out and interact with real people, not just the SIMS characters on his Mac?

It all comes down to confidence. For the male population of nerds, many of them don’t have confidence. They have the intelligence but lack the social skills. And rather than go out there and socialize with people, they stick with what they know…at least, until they are forced to be social and develop those skills.

Yet there ARE girl nerds out there – I should know, I’m one of them. Girls who like to play video games (guilty…GTA IV, Guitar Hero, Super Smash Bros, Zelda, LOTR The Two Towers), spend weekends studying at the library, read comic books, write computer programs, wore braces in high school, plays Dungeons & Dragons, has watched Star Wars over 300 times…THEY DO EXSIST! While boy nerds deal with their unsociable characteristics in their own manner, girl nerds are different. Speaking from past experience as a girl nerd, I was happy being who I was with my small group of nerdy friends. I was content – I never thought about pursuing a boy to be in a relationship with. Part of that contentment came from the fact that I knew I was a nerd – what boy would want to date that? From the very start of high school, I was sure of three things; 1) I was a nerd. 2) No one would date me. 3) High school was just a necessary step towards something so much better – college.

Thank goodness time has gone by. I still am a nerd, but I quit being so anti-social. I gained confidence and have stopped telling myself that I would die alone, surrounded by my cats. While I’m one of the lucky nerds to have gained social skills, there are still so many boy and girl nerds out there. If they aren’t willing to take the steps towards being social, is there a solution to bring the two together? A social method of bringing the anti-social together? In the words of John Lennon – All you need is love. And a player two controller.

*Here’s the link!

Article – NYU Student Creates ‘Virtual Girlfriend’