It’s wholly appropriate that I make my glorious return to blogging about the positive and the neato in the geek media world on Valentine’s Day. It’s a day when couples celebrate their love affair with each other, and single people celebrate their love affair with Haagen Dazs. Either way, potentially good times and good eating (that’s what she said).
Anyway, among my geekery friends, the traditional norms of roses, candy, and jewelry persist, but in the years since I’ve admitted to being a student of the geek arts, I’ve seen some pretty interesting gifts for V-Day. The wi-fi shirt that’s pictured here and available over at ThinkGeek is just one such present I’ve seen bestowed on a lucky guy or gal. Gamers have given in-game rare items to their sweethearts. E-carding has given way to collages made in Picasa and mailed videos have given way to surprise calls on Skype. And the traditional gifts I’ve mentioned have all taken on an ability to be ordered, picked up, tracked, and delivered from the comfort of your own home.
There’s also the fact that geekery tools have allowed people to share what they’ve got or send messages to loved ones instantly. Today’s Facebook feed has a ton of stuff related to all the things people are doing (or not doing) on today’s holiday of love, Twitter is filled with, well, twitterpated people, and generally, people are using the Internet more to express love (or love to hate). I can’t say this is a bad thing, because even though Valentine’s Day is sometimes a private holiday for those who celebrate it, it’s nice to see how your friends are faring. And if you’re single? Well, the tools are out there to change that, with the Internet being an increasingly viable method of meeting people – even if it’s to collectively grouse at all the lovey-dovey going on.
Either way, geek chic and tech is here to stay and holidays like Valentine’s Day provide a reminder that things, they are a-changing when it comes to how to best go about it. I hope that regardless of where you are in relationship status, that everyone reading has someone special that they can express a bit of affection to, whether that’s a lover, spouse, friend, or family member. If anything else, you can count on the fact that I love everyone who’s reading, and who’ll continue to reading now that I’m back in force.