Is being a geek something to be proud of? A few decades ago the answer would almost certainly have been no: the word was a cruel and critical label attached to clever， but socially awkward， people: train-spotters， computer geeks， and unpopular college students. Then in the 1990s everything changed. The computer industry helped many geeks to achieve great success， and the wider perception of geeks began to shift. Being a geek was suddenly a positive thing， suggesting an admirable level of knowledge， expertise， and passion: geeks could do 'cool stuff'. It's now common for people to be self-proclaimed or self-confessed geeks, with geekiness no longer confined to the world of science and technology （a music geek with an awesome vinyl collection ｜ the kind of film that every true movie geek would give five stars）. Nerds have undergone a similar change of image but to a lesser extent， with some negative terms such as boring and pathetic still commonly attached to the word.