I think this is probably where our points differ, though: I think it's quite the opposite. It is considered cool to be a nerd. People are ignorant as to what the word means and hope to gain something by association. The very word itself has been mutated by pop culture to mean something different to the literal definition. People that are rightly nerds and geeks have earned these titles by years of zealous devotion to a hobby regarded by others as weird and lame. Statuses, in whatever form, are earned. Saying that you're a nerd because you bought a comic or invested in this month's video game is akin to saying you're a chef because you can cook eggs. All of these things take dedication. Just as an athlete will take time to train in his discipline, a geek will do the same -- and sometimes, not even by choice.
I don't think you got my point at all, because most of what you're saying here was
exactly what I was trying to point out. The interesting thing is, though, that guy in
the video, he's talking about how he doesn't want to call himself a nerd because it's
become such a popular word and because it enfolds a wider variety of people, but
isn't it right to claim that he would have never liked calling himself a nerd?
Considering the fact that before the word became "popular" and "cool" it was used as
a belittling word, as an offense from others directed toward the proclaimed nerd.
I find this general development quite interesting, how it was first that, used to offend,
then the nerds adopted the word in an attempt to remove the negativity of it's use, but
this apparently worked too well, and now it's become a negative word because it got
accepted and adopted again by, as you say, pop culture, and changed. So now it's a
negative word again, although not in the same way.