I got a bit behind on email while I was traveling to Stockholm last week for #WindowsonLocation. What with all the sailing, eating of fabulous herring (I mean that seriously; there are a million ways to eat herring there and every way I tried was awesome), trying on of raincoats, and general merry making, the 2 million product pitches in my email somehow got more ignored than usual. See? I do know how to prioritize.
But somewhere, lost in all those emails, was an announcement that Saturday May 25 was Geek Pride Day. I’m proud to be a geek. But I didn’t realize there was a day for it. And, of course, there’s a survey to go with the day. This one from Modis, an IT staffing company. I like the results of this survey, which is the only reason I mention it. Here they are:
- Love Connections: Sixty-eight percent (68 percent) of all respondents say they would date a geek! This could be because a majority (67 percent) of Americans associates geeks with being loyal, an important component to any relationship.
- Geeks are smart: More than half (58 percent) of Americans define geeks as extremely intelligent. A 13 percentage point increase over our survey in 2011
- Even non-geeks proud of geek interests: 65 percent of respondents (including non-geeks) say that if they were trying to impress someone, they would take pride in their “geek” toys (i.e. Stuffed animals and action figures), 90 percent say they would be proud of their books and comic books, and a surprising 65 percent would be proud of their superhero or cartoon character clothing, including pajamas.
- Gainful Employment: Seventy percent of respondents who self-identify as a geek are employed, compared to only 54 percent of non-geeks
- Wearable Tech: Half of all Americans (51 percent) would wear either smart glasses or a smart watch.
Most of that reaffirms what we already knew of course. Employed? Check. Hot? Natch. Smart? Yessir. Action figures? Um. Really? Even my kids are over those. But 51% want wearable tech? I am wondering about that. I might even be thinking it’s no accident that ~half the population is male and that ~half of those surveyed would wear smart glass or a smart watch.
I love the idea of a watch that links to my phone and feed key information to my wrist. A quick glance to see who is calling so I don’t spend my life staring at a screen? Texts right on my wrist? But I have my dignity. The watch has to look good and go with what I’m wearing. So far, only the Sony SmartWatch has really melted my butter. Though my husband and son loved the Martian smart watch we covered in the June issue of Family Circle.
But Google Glass? Um. I’m sure that’s some cool technology right there. (I don’t know for sure since Google wouldn’t send me one to try.) But I’m not wearing that. Seriously. I’m not. I may be a geek. But I still have my pride.