The Rise of Nerds' Popularity (ePub)

'Say it loud. I'm a nerd and proud', screams Lewis in the 'Revenge of The Nerds' (Zacharias/Buhai 1983, 116) to the football audience - and the crowd is celebrating him. In the past, this would be a dream for every school nerd as nerds generally experienced bullying during school time all over. Nobody wanted to be a nerd. Nobody wanted to be identified as it, although he or she might be a nerd. Now it seems that many people want to be nerds as they can do anything. They are smart and successful in life. Nerds save the world as comic heroes or at least work on essential inventions that are used and entertained by everyone as Mark Zuckerberg's 'Facebook'. Nerds are even able get the attractive girl of their dreams, just like in the TV series 'Chuck' or the movie 'The Girl Next Door'. People identified as nerds became popular over the last decade and were suddenly tolerated by outsiders. This change of society's perception has three reasons; first, the definition of the term 'nerd' has changed in a positive way, second, the nerd culture became an essential part of our everyday life, and third, the successful American media featured nerds heavily in globally watched TV series, movies and played video games.