I recently returned from the Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Fran. As I was coming down the escalator to go to one of the keynote talks, one of my colleagues turned around and gave me an… um… strong stare of confusion? embarrassment? horror? as I pulled out my pen and notebook…apparently pen and paper are ancient! (Or is it just my imagination that his eyebrows arch up really high like that naturally?)
It got so bad that finally I had to break down and pull out my laptop to take notes (high school peer pressure never really goes away!). I always knew the Fresh team were super mega MAJOR Web 2.0 enthusiasts, but how do normal, ordinary people know when they’ve officially crossed that invisible line into nerdom?
I started thinking back to a few things that have actually happened to me in the last few months with the Fresh team and put together a little quiz to help the team realize how nerdy they really were… and help others evaluate the same. Give yourself one point for each thing below that you can relate to and don’t forget to add bonus points if you have gone the extra mile.
1. When you want to go out to eat, the first place you go is Yelp to look up restaurants. When we were in San Fran at lunchtime when I was VERY HUNGRY, there were two wonderful restaurants right in front of us, but we couldn’t make a decision because nobody could figure out which one was best–10 restaurant reviews at 100%, or 20 reviews at 90%?(+5) Bonus Points if your first reaction to this dilemma is: “I’m sure there is an algorithm or iPhone app for that!” (Yep, one of the guys said exactly that as we were trying to figure it out.)
2. You talk about the logistics involved in using social media to selling products online –anything from selling Girl Scout cookies on eBay and direct messaging your friends on Twitter to spread the work to launching a holistic social campaign for a major brand. Just normal morning conversation over bacon and eggs when you work with these kind of guys! (+2) Bonus Points if you push your kids fundraisers on Facebook.
3. You read about your conversation with a client on Twitter…before you hang up the phone. (Glad he had something nice to say!) (+5) Bonus Points if its got its own #hashtag.
4. You know your company meeting is over, not because anyone leaves the room, but because everybody has stopped talking and the only sound in the room is people quietly tapping away on their computers. Nobody at Fresh thinks this is strange when this happens at our weekly meetings. (+3) Bonus Points if somebody starts snoring in there.
5. You find out you’ve been dumped when your great aunt Ruby in Ohio emails you to find out why your girlfriend just changed her status to “single” on Facebook. (Okay this didn’t really happen to me, but still….) (+5) Bonus Points if she sends you over the LinkedIn profile of the neighbor down the street that she wants to fix you up with.
6. People start recognizing you by your online avatar. Recently a strange man commented on the outfit he had seen me wearing at a social media event because a few days prior somebody had taken pictures and tweeted them out. (Honestly, how can you tell the stalkers from the people that are just really, really connected anymore? It’s a fine line!) (+10) Bonus Points if you start talking about “your tweeple” (Twitter friends) in the same way you would say “my public.” Okay, you can add the bonus points if you ever even think of using the phrase “my tweeple.”
7. You use your iPhone to take a picture of the Row and Number in the garage where your car is parked (+7) Bonus Points If you take a video and tweet it out making at least one of your followers DM you with congratulations that you got a space so close to the handicapped stall. Score!
8. You’ve been involved in a Virtual Reality experience. (+100) Bonus Points if you’ve paid actual money in Second Life to buy a tropical island in the Pacific for your work meetings. (Yep, people really do this. Are the fruity drinks with the umbrella straws real there too?)
9. You are so interested in increasing your online connections that you “friend” the person who shared a cookie with you in second grade. (+5) Bonus Points if you ask her for a recommendation on LinkedIn… after all, the two of you “go way back.”
10. You do one of the following AT LEAST three times a day: (+4) Bonus points if you do these ten times per day:
- Talk about your new iPhone applications.
- Think or say, “I’ve got to tweet that out!”
- Roll your eyes when people that say “Social media is just a fad.”
Scoring Range
1-5 Points: You are on the cusp of normality. Acceptable level. Hey you live in late 2009! Nothing to worry about.
5-20 Points: You are sliding fast into nerdom. Tipping Point time, baby.
21+ Points: Get thee to a psychiatrist!
So how about you… what are some of the ways you can tell when someone’s crossed that invisible line into official web 2.0 nerdom?
[...] This post was Twitted by JoshDance [...]
Kate… According to your grading system, I’m happy to learn I’m on the cusp of normality just barely sliding toward nerdom. Thanks for the head’s up. Maybe I can catch myself before I go off the deep end.
I can tell when some of the people I meet are crossing that invisible line when I call them on the phone, am forced to leave a voice mail, and they respond to me via Twitter or even email. Seems a lot easier just to touch “redial” on the phone than to do all that thum-typing.
I guess I’m just old fashioned, but it seems like the keypad is the “new voice” for phones, and updating a facebook or twitter status is the new “conversation”.
On the improvement side, this year for Thanksgiving dinner we banned all the grandchildren from texting at the table. Last year it was all the rage, so maybe there’s a ray of hope for normality.
I’m naturally introverted but love to communicate. Voila, electronic social networking to the rescue. It may make me a nerd but it makes me more effective as well.
Kate, you had me laughing out loud!
Last night on a plane ride home, the guy sitting next to me — who was clearly a Baby Boomer — read his book on a Kindle, napped while listening to his iPod, and called his wife on his cell and instructed her to text him back regarding the location of their car. I don’t know how he would have managed the trip if it weren’t for all his nerd devices. ; )
As for me, I learn about what’s going on with my family via Facebook, such as my sister-in-law getting sick with a nasty cold due to the stress she experienced because SL was down.
(Sorority Life must be played daily by those addicted to the Facebook game, and the emotional trauma caused when it is unavailable cannot be overstated.)
Kate, you did it again. Absolutely hilarious and very well-written. This should be the standard for evaluating web 2.0 nerdom citizenship.
Thanks for all your comments, everybody! I love to hearing about your stories of Web 2.0 nerdom too.