The essence of a Geek

When the dot-com bubble burst in late 2000 a lot of amateur and professional investors lost their shirts. It was a pretty embarrassing time for the financial markets and a time that a lot of people would choose to forget — but not everyone.

For a few years, an interest in computers and technology became inextricably linked with wealth and power — geek became chic. Technology companies suddenly became the focus of the kind of attention that had been reserved for the music or fashion industries. In the UK, TV makers even went so far as to create a hip series, Attachments, based around the antics of a tech start-up.

True, much of this temporary kudos enjoyed by technologists was obliterated in the dot-com mushroom cloud, but not all. On some level, technology and technologists were permanently lifted a couple notches up the cool-o-meter. And that process, kick-started by the dot-com gold rush, has accelerated recently — motivated by a different and altogether more pervasive force. A plethora of seductive technologies typified by the Motorola V3 family or the iPod, combined with success of online services offered by Google and eBay, have slowly invaded the wider consciousness — inspiring a kind of techno-lust in the general public.

We're all geeks
IT industry analyst James Governor of RedMonk claims that while it may not yet be cool or trendy to admit, a degree of technical sophistication has become expected. He claims that increasingly, "we're all geeks" — even if a lot of people don't care to admit it.

To illustrate his point, Governor recalls a recent conversation involving his wife and some of her friends — mostly women who would probably describe themselves as non-techies. One of the women pulled out a new Windows Mobile smartphone while protesting that she wasn't "a geek". Governor then politely enquired whether she had her email sychronised to the device — she did. This then initiated a conversation about mobile phone design — the last thing the technical analyst was expecting given the company. 

While some of Governor's comments illustrate the idea that a certain level of technical sophistication is increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception. In fact, if the levels of female interest in tech can be counted as some kind of barometer for a general geekiness pervading society then there seems to be some truth in the Governor's assertion that increasingly we are all nerds to some degree.

Technical sophistication
A recent survey by the Sci-Fi channel discovered that an increasing number of women could be included in the ranks of a new demographic it nick-named "New Geek". The research revealed that a third of the UK's total of 6.9 million geeks were actually female. "Whereas once geeks were seen as solitary, embarrassing and uncool, the statistics show that New Geek is chic, popular and hugely influential," the researchers claimed.

"New Geeks", as described by the channel's research, are relatively young (83 percent are under 44) and well-off (21 percent have family income of more than £50,000) and are 125 percent more likely to visit pubs, clubs and bars than the average person.

However, while some commentators would admit that levels of technical literacy may indeed be on the rise, they disagree that this translates into an increase in the number of hardcore techies in existence. The defenders of geek — IT professionals on the whole — maintain that there is a definite dividing line between geeks and non-geeks; one has the interest and skills to actually make things, while the other merely uses them.

Shakespeare's geek
All this begs the question, what exactly is a geek and what sets them apart? Historically, the word was associated with oddness. Possible predecessors include...

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