I won’t post it here, but you can find a ven diagram out and about that shows the overlapping ‘areas’ that identify if you are a geek, dork nerd, or something else. (I forget which, but at the same time dont really think it’s important.)
There is a problem with this diagram which is endemic to using ven diagrams in a situation that is not an ‘either/or’ situation.
Let’s take the ‘technologically literate’ option. Are you technologically literate? On what basis does one make that judgment? There was a time when you might look at the living room VCR and you would be able to tell because if the person or household didn’t have a technologically literate person there the clock would be blinking 12:00 or something. Right? Now almost no one has a VCR. TiVos and dvd-players do not have a clock display. Cable boxes might have a clock, but it gets it’s time from the cable company. So, no more worries there.
If you think about it, there are few outward signs as to whether someone is technologically litterate these days. Having a smart-phone is more of a ‘status’ symbol or style element than indication of being technologically competent. Especially when you realize that a significant number of people carry them because their boss is paying for it for them.
To know whether someone is technologically competent or not you pretty much need to sit and chat with them to find out face to face. Oh, they might give away incompetence early on, but just because they haven’t doesn’t mean they are. The thing is even when you sit down with them and decide they are technically competent, it then becomes a question of how competent. You’ve just decided that they know how to turn on and off a computer without causing problems. Perhaps they can find a search engine on the web. Does your definition indicate that they can dig into Firefox’s latest release and find and patch bugs? There is a spectrum of ‘competence’ and just because someone is capable of some things does not mean that they are capable of everything.
The ‘difference’ between ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ is one of social competence. Geeks are (or tend to be) socially competent. Nerds are not. Actually the Nerd end is not just not being competent socially, they don’t know that they are not.
I’m actually somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, and you probably are too. Most of us have encountered situations where our not being aware of a social gaff we have made, or more likely becoming aware of the fact that we have made a social gaff, has left the situation in an Awkward position. The ‘That came out all wrong’ state is hardly unusual.
The thing is that there are very few people who are completely unaware of being social misfits, just as there are very few people who never make mistakes socially, or are perfectly prepared to turn what looks like a gaff into a wonderful experience for all involved.
Most of us have some level of competence socially. We pretty much need some to get a job these days. However we can each point at someone we probably know who either ‘gets it’ more, or less than we do. And there are days when we feel like we ‘get it’ as well as days when that’s furthest from the truth.
Honestly, it’s part of being ‘normal.’ And while it is embarasing at times, it’s also one of those things where at times you just realized that for the moment, you’re on top of the world.
