Nerd chic is as dead as punk in 1990. Most social movements are commoditized by way of cultural signifiers, and when the cultural impact of those signifiers goes away, so does the soul of the movement.

"Nerd" used to be about the intellectualism of it, the replacement of certain social interactions with an indie academic mindset. Now, "Nerd" is a marketing demographic, replete with physical identifiers: black plastic frames, object fetishism, a certain "look."

P.S. Punk is still alive in Minneapolis and SoCal. It's just not popular, so the people who actually give a shit are active. However, the rejection of populism is cool, and "cool" attracts the populace.