Way before the rise of the hipsters there were nerds. Although not as smug and, frankly obnoxious as hipsters, nerds tend to say things that only they, and a small group of other people with the same interests would understand. The are the originators of the "Umm.. actually" phrase, that only exist to differentiate between those who know and those who do not, in fact, know. "Oh, you don't know what Avogadro's number is? No, you probably never heard of it, why would you? Than you will probably won't get this joke".
The thing is, to be a hipster you just have to find some obscure bands and books that no one has heard of, but to be a true nerd you actually have to obsess over a subject, learn it, understand it, memorize a ton of information about it, and in general - live it. does it come at the expense of a functioning social life? Yes, but at least you can scroll through these memes and expel some air out of your nose as you nod and feel good about understanding them.