I don't know about the generational thing. I'm very very new to fandom in general (though I've been a geek all my life, of course), and I am young (26), and still my general reaction to all this popularity stuff is basically a huge WTF?!

Hmmm, maybe it's the difference between true geeks and non-geeks? Maybe, maybe not. Though I've gotten the impression that part of the reason geeks and nerds get a hard time in the jungle of the US High School system is because they're simply not interested in playing the popularity game -- and if one isn't interested in playing the popularity game at school, why would one be interested in playing the popularity game in one's fannish life either?

Then one could start postulating hypotheses based on Myers-Briggs personality types, but I'm not going to bother.