Six Degrees of Geekiness
As I’ve said many times before, I consider myself a real geek. It’s not something I’ve grown into the last couple of years or have taken on because it’s nowadays “hip”. I can seriously say that at all stages in my life I’ve been a geek in one form or another.
A while ago (10 months to be exact) I wrote a post about the definition of geekiness, where I tried to explain what I think a geek is. At the time I came up with the following:
a person with a passionate devotion to and an extensive knowledge of a particular interest
The main difference from the original “definition” that I wanted to bring across, was the fact that geeks aren’t just fans liking a specific topic, but that they truly are obsessed/passionate/devoted to it. Plus the fact that they aren’t necessarily socially inept. Yes, there are non-social geeks… but that doesn’t mean we all are.
Photo by alistair_uk on Flickr
Now I’ve noticed most people tend to agree with my definition (in as far as I can claim it as “my” definition). Except for one point. They always assume the particular interest is tech-related. Geeks mean gadget-loving, computer-wielding tech-lovers. Is this true? I don’t think so. In my eyes, you could be a geek in any topic: from math to snowboarding to mobiles.
And that brings me to the title of this post: six degrees of geekiness. I am six types of geeks all rolled into one*:
1. The TV Show Geek
2. The Sci-Fi Geek
3. The Movie Geek
4. The Book Geek
5. The Game Geek
6. The Computer Geek
I was going to write about how I got into each of these geekhoods, only to discover there’s way more backstory to each of them (hey, I’m a blogger, I like to talk about myself, get used to it). For instance, my descent into Sci-Fi started with my attempt to enter a harmless drawing competition at our local mall. And how could I not tell the tale of how I became a computer geek without mentioning my beloved graphic calculator?
So instead I thought I’d do a collection of blog posts: each one about another of my geek sides. You can expect the first some time later this week. In the mean time, why don’t you share a bit of your geek background stories. How many degrees of geekiness do you possess?
