The internet. When I were a lad (in the eighties) if you were into D&D or playing games on your Vic 20 and reading spiderman comics, there was no mainstream acceptance and there was no easy way to find others with your interests. Parents that grew up in the sixties didn't understand what you were doing, there was a kind of "there, there, he'll grow out of it" mentality and only the closest of friends could you share your geekiness with.

Now adays, hit up a search engine, get sent to Read and find out and all of a sudden you discover the secret world of geeks is everywhere, and we're not really a minority. Nothing removes the shame of being a geek better than knowing there are thousands upoin thousands of you out there doing the same things.