Being a geek / hacker at heart is not about using the latest whizbang gadget. It is also not about using the newest medium of communication or hanging out in the places tech journalists write about in exquisite detail. It is about mastering one field and using the experience gained from it to jumpstart into the next one. The problem is that it is often impossible to tell what will be the new thing of today that we will fondly look back on tomorrow.

Some may say today it is Twitter streams or Facebook walls or they may say it is the startup culture like we have here on HN but nobody knows. It could be something as benign as upvoting only thoughtful comments here on HN instead of funny ones like on reddit/fark/digg that could bring about a long-lasting effect on the future of open discussion on the Internet. We could be the guys that beat Eternal September while sharing our code and ideas with others. We don't have to phreak or use IRC to be considered true geeks. We could use the same tools as our moms (I'm using an iPad right now, I got one for my mom too) and still be doing very different things. She plays Farmville while I'm trying to create apps that help the disabled.

The fact that our tools have matured to the level of flexibility and stability that both hackers and their moms can use them is something to be proud of, no despair. After all, I use the same faucets as my mom and the same washing machines. 60 years ago the geeks made their own electronic devices. Oh and we still do that too. Check out the Arduino forums.