Resumo de The Essence Of A Geek

A general rise in technical literacy driven by gadgets such as the
iPod could be evidence that 'geekery' as a personality trait is
becoming more pervasive.

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
inextricable 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 e-mail
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. "You expect to have that kind
of conversation with guys, but not with women," Governor says.

While some of Governor's comments may come across as sexist -- they
do 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 UK 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 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 or around AU$117,000) 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.

Shakespk

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 the medieval dialect words geck, from Low
German, and gek, from Middle Low German, meaning "fool"; Shakespeare
used the word "geck" in this sense in several plays. (For instance,
from Cymbeline: "Why did you suffer Iachimo, slight thing of Italy, to
taint his nobler heart and brain with needless jealousy; and to become
the geck and scorn o' the other's villany?")

The modern word surfaced in American slang in the early 20th
century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and continued to
refer to various kinds of oddballs. The OED records this example from
the 1916 Wells Fargo Messenger: "A new Wells agent struck our town the
other week, and say you never saw a more enthusiastic geek!" By the
1950s Webster's dictionary recorded that the word referred to a
carnival sideshow weirdo "whose act usually includes biting the head
off a live chicken or snake".

At some point, the word began to be used to refer to people with an
interest so obsessive that it puts them outside the mainstream -- as it
still is used to talk about people with an inordinate knowledge of,
say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, it's most immediate association
is now with technology, and particularly with people who actually make
technology work.

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