When did this happen? Well, it did—and it’s here to stay

I have to hand it to my mom whom I asked for advice on what course to take in college, and without batting an eyelash, she advised me “You’re good in math (analytical) like your dad, go take up MIS (Management Information System).” Of course, me being the dutiful daughter and still undecided on what courses to check, I followed her suggestion and put MIS on the top of my list—and I got in. It was a fairly new course, a mix of computer science and management skills that have come in handy all throughout my career, especially now that I am in the online publishing industry.

The year I graduated was when people all over the world were preparing for Y2K to happen, or, actually, for Y2K not to happen. Along with that was the string of nerdy movies that reintroduced geeks as cool and badass. The first movie The Matrix was also released in 1999 with Keanu Reeves as the main character, a computer programmer who was destined to save the world. Another much-awaited movie series was George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, starting off with The Phantom Menace.

Watching them, at that time, while working on my coding projects, gave me a glimpse of how the world would be lie at the turn of the 21st century and for the next decade or so. Nerds are becoming the heroes and geek talk is about to get sexy. Gone are the days when they were stereotyped as the weird one, butt of all jokes, and outcast. A geek who knows computer science, coding, hacking into systems is always part of the cast. Without him, the storyline is incomplete.

Following suit are movies such as Minority Report in 2002, Terminator sequels in 2003 and 2009, Men In Black in 2002, A.I. Artificial Intelligence in 2001, Iron Man in 2008, Star Trek in 2009, and series such as Kyle XY which ran from 2006 to 2009, 4400 from 2004 to 2007, and Fringe from 2004 to 2007—all with fast nerdy talk script that make you want to rewind and listen to them again so you get what’s happening. And thanks to these good-looking main characters, nerds are given more positive impressions.

Simultaneously, around that time, nerd/geek culture was also slowly creeping into our lives. With Google, started by Larry Page and Sergey Bin in 1995, taking the lead. “Working from their dorm rooms, they built a search engine that used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web,” posted on the website. You know you’re part of the mainstream world when the word “google” officially became part of the Oxford dictionary in 2006. “Just google it!”—Don’t we all say that?

It was also around 1995 when my family purchased our first personal computer (PC) at home. PCs weren’t really meant for home use until the internet was made accessible to many. And what’s the first thing you see when you turn on your computer? The operating system Microsoft Windows by Bill Gates which still dominates until today. I remember talking about computer specs with my classmates then, and found it amazing to be able to understand each other. Need a computer? Know your specs first.

The start of social networking catapulted in the late 2000s, with Friendster going first in 2002, Multiply in 2004, and the most successful one, Facebook, now Meta, launched in 2004 by Harvard students. Who hasn’t heard of Mark Zuckenberg? The movie The Social Network followed in 2010, proving that Facebook has taken the world by storm. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Check your Facebook page—and that’s what we do up until now.

In 2007, the first iPhone was released. My brother and I just had to have one each. It was the coolest thing to own the very first touchscreen smartphone, one that could fit in your hand and run like a computer—at that time. Steve Jobs was another visionnaire who even mapped out many more plans that were executed even after his passing. The iPhone paved the way for many innovations

These companies continue to change how the world is running. A lot followed after, from music enthusiasts going to Napster in 1999 and evolving to Spotify in 2006, from shopping online through eBay in 1995 to online stores, shopping platforms, and mobile applications, from e-mail services such as hotmail in 1996, yahoo in 1997, to gmail in 2001, and even as simple as electronic messaging and chatting that now come with video call options. Technology is part of our lives, and to live it is to understand how they work to our advantage.

And whether we like it or not, we’re all nerds on some level. With everyone going online to shop and e-commerce sales going up, there really is no other way but to adapt and understand the algorithms, data analytics, online marketing strategies, and everything that is needed to get a one-up versus the competitors.

To quote Bill Gates, “Be nice to nerds. Chances are, you’ll end up working for one.” Well, even bigger chances are, you’re using their products and services.