Why are nerds commonly stereotyped as wearing glasses?

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It may also be that near-sighted people survive and reproduce less often in cultures which don't place an emphasis on education.

Hmm apparently:

nerd
1. a person considered to be socially awkward, boring, unstylish, etc.


2. an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit:
a computer nerd.


according to dictionary.com, so maybe glasses were/are seen as unstylish so people associate them with nerds. Thinking back to childhood/adolescence/teens the common stereotype seemed to be small build, freckles, big glasses, probably some breathing issue like allergies or asthma and braces.

Well, I don't think that's the case. It's a really recent phenomenon in places like Hong Kong, for instance. I think there was a huge rise in myopia in just one or two generations. The vast majority of young people in these areas are now nearsighted. So it appears to be environmental, not natural selection.

Plus they found a link between sunlight and the way that they eye develops. There is a genetic predisposition for myopia, but it probably just makes one more susceptible to environmental factors.

I'm rather nerdy and I wear glasses.

I don't know, it puts me off wearing them. In older people glasses is common and is not considered nerdy, but young people under 40 seem to give off a nerdy or "special needs" vibe if wearing glasses - not everybody, glasses suit some people and confidence in body language in boys and well-groomed hair and lots of make-up in girls takes the stereotyped nerdy vibe off, but if I wore glasses I would probably look special needs-ish or nerdy, and I already have girls laughing/staring at me in public as it is.

Just to point out, a true nerd isn't going to use scotch or electrical tape as per the stereotype, because they understand how the adhesives on them work. J-B Weld on the other hand is *amazing* for emergency glasses fixes & what MAKE'r -style geek doesn't always have some handy?

Contacts and LASIC are bad for the eyes, they can make vision problems worse and even result in blindness.

I'm too nearsighted to see properly with glasses. So I wear contacts. I'm going to try to get a type of refractive surgery that is not LASIK. It has a longer recovery time but better results, and can be used for those with severe myopia.

That explains some of the drivers I see now a days-- they're like 40, but never learned to read so they never knew they were blind and thus drive like s**t.

In the Arthur's Eyes episode of Arthur when Arthur first gets glasses, when he gets to school he starts getting called "four eyes" and have people making fun of him wearing glasses. After that, he tries to go without the glasses, and then winds up going in the girls' bathroom accidentally. He then says he just needs to get use to it.

Glasses don't have as much stigma as hearing aids however. There are people who will wear their glasses who object to wearing a hearing aid and wind up missing out a lot on hearing stuff due to the fact that they need one.

Bad eyes from too much reading

Oh yeah. I've been wearing some RealD IMAX polarized shades, they really help with my issuses as an amateur mayan priest.