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People say that nerdiness has gone mainstream, but this is a mistake. It was never nerdy to buy anything, unless it was a chemistry set or a telescope. The very concept of nerdiness has been transformed drastically into something that can go mainstream in the commercial sense.
People are now encouraged to be "nerds" by dressing up as their favorite corporate mascots, or decorating their house in the theme of billion dollar intellectual property. Nerdiness is now defining yourself not by your knowledge, but by your habits as a consumer.
Virtue signaling, pure&simple. When consumption culture (resulting from mass media) turns its eye towards anything, even intellectualism, it offers the same hook: buy this shortcut, do less work, look just as good. The only way to preserve values is through intentional culture.
And in our internet-dominated world, it's virtually impossible to form a culture or subculture that isn't massively susceptible to the memetic maelstrom whirling around on "social media" platforms.
Nerd has been co-opted to become almost its own antithesis.
I blame the insidious overlap of geekiness and nerdiness over the years to the point where the two have become nigh indistinguishable from one another. Geeky things tend to revolve around collectibles and hobbies, which incidentally and initially only nerds were into for a while.
If the interest involves video games, comic books, hobbies, crafting, animation/anime, collecting anything, or, in a diminished interpretation of the term, greatly enjoying media where there's a nickname for the fans involved (i.e. "Whovians"), then it is geeky.
Have you ever read Animalizing Postmodernity by Hiroki Azuma? It's a neat short book that deals with this sort of thing in the context of Japanese ~90s culture.
This is a Good Take
You'll get a lot of people saying otherwise or defending this, but it is 100 pct true
As a language geek, I have to say that prescriptivism is going to get you nowhere. Gripe about language, but aside from a very few exceptions, it can’t be policed, it is never static.
Hmmm, I see your point, but I also adhere to John Green’s definition of nerd as someone who is enthusiastic about what they love. This can be expressed by both knowledge and consumption, but also by using that love of a subject or narrative to connect to other, similar ppl
The positive side of the “mainstreaming” of the nerd term is people meeting up and sharing knowledge and ideas about what they love
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