The difference I think is that geekiness is now socially acceptable, even popular. See the glut of TV shows featuring geeks in endearing, funny roles instead of their normal "loser" position.

Even in my social circles, we now have a bunch of wannabe geeks. People who buy iPhones, read reddit, use "FAIL" a lot, but never played D&D, wrote code, nor done anything genuinely geeky, ever.