What makes a 'geek'?

In thinking about learning and technology, I’ve been wondering why it is that some people are more attracted to using and discovering technology than others. This leads me to think about that group of people often called ‘geeks’. There’s an extensive entry on geeks at Wikipedia, suggesting it has at least as much to do with obsession as technology.

Howard Becker opens his useful book, Tricks of the Trade : How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It, with an anecdote from his student days about a discussion of what makes an ‘ethnic group’. The key point is that one cannot study an ethnic group in isolation: such a group only exists because another group has identified them as separate or different from them in some way.

So, in considering geeks we also need to examine those who aren’t geeks, and what it is the various groups think of each other.

Popular images of geeks often have them identifying as such, sometimes proudly, sometimes self-consciously. Certain stereotypical characteristics make them identifiable to others, and in this way they appear as a separate cultural group. Thus, it is an issue of culture as much as technology.

So, apart from recognising that there may be ‘cultural’ issues, how useful will this be in determining how individuals learn about technology?