In my personal experience, the trekkies I've come across are generally more academically inclined and more "book-smart." The SW fans I've come across are generally more eccentric and more artistic. I'm not saying one group is better than another, I'm just pointing out my observations. *puts up flame shield (fire resistance +3)*
Im a trek fan, but i am a geek, i suck at math and i dont know anything more about computers than the average guy.
Is there a legit definition to both? I assume there is but never bothered to look them up. The Urban Dictionary no doubt as one. I've used them interchangably. My "Nerds" definition goes back to those films: Revenge of the Nerds. So nerds were smart book worms with little phyiscal proweress. However, Geeks just seemed like a synonym to me. Here you are saying(I think) that a Geek is more artsy? Couldn't a nerd be eccentric also?
I know more people who are fans of both than I do who are fans of one or the other or fit the stereotype of being a fan of one while strongly hating the other. I don't think you can pigeonhole fans of either into any specific group.
Well, like you said, by definition, a nerd is usually a book worm that can't lift his own weight. A geek is usually someone who is deeply devoted on a subject, any subject. So a geek may have more physical prowess and less intellectual prowess.
I think the rest of the world probably looks at both Star Wars and Star Trek fans as being exactly the same. Naturally, some ST and SW fans would disagree, but the differences are likely considered trivial outside of the respective fandoms, IMO...
I don't know where I fit. I am a book worm but I read a lot of history and non-fiction. I love science but I really suck at math. I am very artistic and I draw and sing and play the guitar. I really like Star Wars but I am a huge Trekkie!
Like Space Therapist I don't fit either loose definition to the letter. I'm sure that's an additional reason I use them interchangeably. I was a jock who was in the drama club. I recall juggling a pre-performance weekend play practice with a Saturday Basketball practice. Meaning I didn't get all the makeup washed off my face good, the two overlapped that close. Nothing like sweating the remaining makeup into your eyes. I was an 'A' student in History, A/B in Science but Math...no sir, C's 95% of the time. Love Trek unapologetically, Star Wars I'm passive about. I know for certain I'll not pony up to see all 6 films in 3-D re-release. Also, the 3-D gives me headaches so that's another reason but I digress.
My impression is that SW is much more popular with children, but once you start dealing with adult fans, there's no real difference. Granted, I meet a lot more TREK fans that SW buffs.
I'd simply say that Trek fans tend to be smarter than average Wars fans, but less devoted to the merchandise.
Probably not, but my mom and I sussed it all out one day: Nerd = someone with strong intellectual interests. It really has nothing to do with physical attractiveness, athletic prowess or social comfort levels. Bill Clinton is a nerd - during the 1992 campaign, before the womanizing scandal hit, all anyone could talk about was him being a Rhodes scholar and a detail oriented policy wonk. As we all know he's also a mack daddy and wildly charming. At the same time, Al Gore is also a nerd - no macking to be had, and not so much with the charming. Geek = someone who is passionately interested in a particular subject. Again, no one is really knocked out of the geek category by being attractive or athletic. And, just about everyone is a geek about something. I know garden geeks and birding geeks who are just as freaky when they geek out about their beloved subject as any computer geek ever was. Note: To "geek out" is to talk at length about your beloved subject whether the person you are talking to is interested or not. To not notice that you are causing someone to glaze over moves you closer to the final category: Dork = a dork is usually not atheltically gifted, has little to no sexual appeal and is mostly distiguished by a high level of social awkwardness. Now - where things get confusing is that, while you can be a nerd or a geek and not be a dork, a large percentage of nerds and geeks are dorks, and geeks of certain types, such as comic book geeks, sci fi geeks, computer geeks, etc have enough geek/ dork cross-over for a stereotype to have formed in the public consciousness. But trust me, I work in museums so everyone I know is a nerd - some are charming, some make out like bandits and some are so painfully dorky you run when you see them coming.
Reminds me a quiz my friends and I cooked up years ago. The Geek-O-Lizer. The biggest geek was a guy who was into gaming, comics, SF and sports. The only way he could have been a bigger geek would be to bite the heads off chickens. There was one guy who refused to believe he was geek, even though he was the biggest Deadhead around. If you follow a band from town to town making and trading concert tapes, you're a Grateful Dead geek.
I agree with Greg Cox, if you get to the more hardcore adult fans you won't find much of a difference. However as an entire fan base Star Wars has always gone for a much wider appeal and as always heavily targeted kids, so you have a more diluted view of the fan base than you get with Trek, which sort of shows in the question as you used Trekkie for Trek fan but just SW fan for SW fan.