I'm not so sure that public percepiton is different. Loads of people I know still think that because I'm a programmer I must be an expert in fixing printers, or formatting spreadsheets.
Totally agree. Just because a movie came out and there is a show about startups doesn't mean its gone mainstream. Far from it. To top it off, what is represented in the media is such a small slice (ie. the startup scene) of what real world software developers do that its almost meaningless.