Monday, April 21, 2008

In defence of geeks

There's an ad for BT on the telly currently in which a mother talks to her partner about her worries for her daughter who's spending lots of time on the internet. She pauses for dramatic effect, as we are left to think of the terrible things that could be happening to the kid. So what is she concerned about? Some sexual predator grooming her child? Oh no, it's much much worse than that... She's worried that her daughter is turning into a geek.

Yeah OK, it's all light-hearted enough, but it misses an important point. If it weren't for geeks, there'd be no internet, no eBay, Amazon, Facebook and all the other crap that we can pass the time with. There'd be no computers for that matter, or iPods or mobile phones or CDs or any other electrical gadgets. I'm sure it was geeks (before they were called that) who developed cars, electrical power generation and the telephone.

So let's all the hail the geek, for producing all this stuff to make our lives so much richer (there is a hint of sarcasm there...)

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