[v4dok]

Nerds of the 90s grew up and became a nice (more often than not) affluent market. Industry shifted to accomodate for that. I for one, enjoy it while it lasts.

Because of this, a lot of cultural products made sure that the "nerds" felt the heroes of their own stories, making them cool in pop culture.

That being said, I always considered a crucial characteristic of a nerd the inability to interact fluently with the social environment, instead focusing their energy online or in very specific niches that shielded them from this social "anxiety".

This very much remains, cool kids do "cool" stuff and eloquently interact with their social environment. "Cool stuff" now is probably more "nerdy" than it was 20y ago but the divide is there, I think the author (and me probably) are too old to really see what "nerds" to today.