What it means to be a nerd in today's society

I'm sitting one table over from a guy whose appearance screams "nerd" (not "geek," since a geek is generally someone who bites the heads off of chickens). He's wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with "Google" across the chest, chunky-framed glasses with rectangular lenses, and '80s style headphones that remind me of the headphones that one had to wear for the hearing tests that my peers and I were forced to take in the early '90s. His muscle definition, or lack thereof, implies that he has minimal physical exertion in his daily routine, and his hair is styled in the same manner that I am sure his mother brushed it into when he was a toddler. However, when he ordered his coffee, all of the baristas remarked how ironically cool and trendy his t-shirt and glasses were. I wouldn't be surprised if he bought his headphones from Urban Outfitters.

So has nerd become the mainstay of cool? Furthermore, is nerd's sudden popularity boost based on the millions made by Web 2.0 and the advent of the personal gadget revolution? Or have we all realized that smarter actually is better?

My theory is that people are actually just getting worse at hiding their inner nerd. It stems from the new trends of emotional purging and need for attention from strangers that have popped up in society as a result of the exposition of self provided by social media. People aren't as good as they used to be at putting up a facade and hiding certain less than desirable points about themselves. Instead they're been forced to embrace those points in order to avoid feel the pain normally associated with the inevitable mocking that comes with the territory. As a result, nerd has become commonplace, and companies now market to that commonplace nerdiness. Once there are multiple marketing campaigns geared at something, the public automatically assumes that it must be cool/trendy or the companies wouldn't waste money marketing to it.

I guess we'll never know until this period in time is taught in history courses.