When and why did nerd culture start to become "cool"?

[AlexMitu]

You ever see those people walking around with big glasses, no lenses, and tape in the middle of them? Some of them wear really long socks, that go up to their knee caps. I've even seen people tuck in their shirts, and pull their pants up way high.

In fact, it's become such a "trend", for school spirit week, which starts on Monday, we have a full day dedicated to dressing "like Urkel". And most of the people doing this are the skaters and/or jocks.

Anyway, I'm just curious, how did this all nerd being cool thing start? Because I thought it was a general cliche that the nerd is anything but cool in the minds of everyone else in the school...

 

[omega 616]

Were cool now? I missed that memo then.

Isn't the whole point of being a nerd, is that your not cool? Isn't that what defines them/us?

It might be to do with "the big band theory", (the show, not the scientific event), the inbetweeners etc etc.

 

[Bon_Clay]

Hipsters like to do things ironically. They think its cool. Either call them out on their lack of knowledge on the nerdly subjects, or ignore them.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

There's a big difference between someone dressing like a nerd and someone being into nerd culture.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Wow, the cool thing at my school is ripped jeans and a vacant expression.

Never even heard of this. I thought you were gonna talk about hipsters. I guess this is related to that.

 

[Dango]

They're just hipsters, which is a lot different from nerds. And also a lot of weird stoners at my school dress like that, those are kinda the people I tend to avoid (and also I'm in no way stereotyping with that last statement).

 

[Blind Sight]

Probably just an attempt to non-conform, teenagers like to assert their individuality by defining themselves by a category (yes, I'm aware that makes no sense, you assume teenagers do?). Nerds, the long time stereotype of a social outcast, serve as an example of someone outside of the structure of the high school social circle. Thus, it's an attempt to rebel against the social order, in the hopes of using that image to benefit their popularity (yes, like I said, it makes no sense, but it seems like social outcasts are the 'in' thing nowadays).

 

[thylasos]

When people who were old enough to be in charge of media projects eventually became young enough (that is, born late enough) to have played games more complex and watched the movie "Aliens" in their youth. People want to produce things they identify with. It's warped in the process, in order to make it relatable to the audience.

EDIT: I didn't even read the OP, to be entirely honest. I've not noticed anything like that, to be honest. Certainly, there are people who dress like that, but not to such an extent that it's a dominant trend among people I know, nor am I alienated for not being part of the trend. But it may be due to my being at British university rather than US highschool.

 

[Shivarage]

Its not really "nerd" nerd to know-it-all about pop culture, nerds are more know-it-all about science and uninteresting stuff and as far as I know, they arent exactly loved...

as for the style, no idea :/ your country must be weird

 

[crepesack]

In a world based on crunching numbers and diminished sexism, crunching skulls and having a diminished IQ are not sought for attributes. The global social milieu has changed, a cyber world where people can assume entirely different lives in their privacy has over taken the idea that who you are in real life is who you are on the inside. No longer is being smart and/or being eccentric considered taboo. Online, droves of people exist that share the same qualities as your average "nerd". With the normalization of internet use came the normalization of "nerd-dom".

 

[the Dept of Science]

Probably because the generations that grew up with video-games as a major part of life are now the ones that are in the hotseat of fashion (18-30 age range).

For a lot of the examples I am considering, I'm not sure which came first, the pop-culture or the nerd culture. Or, to put it another way, are there lots of superhero movies out at the moment because people discovered a large untapped nerve demographic, or are there lots of nerds at the moment because superhero movies got a lot of people reading comics?

About the whole hipster thing though, even though they seem to get a lot of scorn, I must commend them for being one of the few fasion trends that I can think of that promotes things like "being well read" or "having an eclectic music taste".

 

[Terminate421]

It didn't, theres really no such thing as a "Nerd" anymore

Back in the 80's and 90's people thought that if you were smart, you weren't cool. Now its the other way around.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Were cool now? I missed that memo then.

Isn't the whole point of being a nerd, is that your not cool? Isn't that what defines them/us?

It might be to do with "the big band theory", (the show, not the scientific event), the inbetweeners etc etc.

Its cool to look nerdy, not to actually be nerdy =P