Computer Nerds Are Getting It On

Geek is no longer just chic. It’s badass.

While you may think that most tech-savvy dorks are sitting behind their screens with braces and bad acne, probably playing computer games, they’re actually up to some risky business. Computer nerds between 10 and 16-years-old are 50 percent more likely to have sex, smoke, drink and do drugs according to a study done by Valerie Carson, an epidemiology PhD candidate.

Parents have worked hard in last decade or so to censor television shows so their kids couldn’t learn by example, but the Internet has proved to be more resilient to censorship efforts. Young kids are learning more and more about computers, surpassing the knowledge of their less techie (and some luddite) parents. This means that they can go online and download just about any old show or movie that they want, witnessing the many dirty deeds that parents fight (without much success) to shelter their children from.

Social cognitive theory suggests that seeing a certain behaviour is enough to learn it. Kids may not always act on these behaviours, but many of them do — especially computer geeks. Carson comes to this surprising conclusion by looking at how many hours a day these young technology buffs spend surfing the net, glaring at one naughty image after the other. Results show that adolescents are in front of their screens over 4.5 hours a day on average. In this time, they could be watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle. They could stream a few episodes of Mad Men and start smoking like chimneys.

The World Wide Web has armed them with a will and a way. So the next time you invite your dorky neighbour over to help you fix your computer, keep in mind that geeks are more than what they seem. They’ve been to the matrix and back.

Contact the author here: tinybart@morningquickie.com