A friend that hates 2.0 gadgets, but is a student at our –technical– university. A friend that has been surfing on the internet for quite some time, but still turns to newspapers or Teletext for breaking news. A friend that is a near isolate in a social system, has a precarious economic position and is suspicious of impulse buying – that’s right, I am talking about a lad.

These despisers of technological determinism think they’re completely rational: their point of reference is the past and they adore their ancient position in the socio-technical system. They prefer to interact with other ‘traditionals’, but there comes a point in time where these unwilling bastards are left to die in their Land of the Laggards, at the tip of the S on Rogers’ adoption curve.

I too, inhabited the Land of the Laggards: I texted and telephoned people, among other various silly phone functionalities. If I threw my phone against a concrete wall and texted one of the spectators afterwards, they merely replied that they would have liked to receive a tweet instead. Gradually, I plunged into a solitary confinement: “Didn’t you know we were supposed to meet at 9? Didn’t you receive my WhatsApp?”

To counter my social isolation, I have become part of various WhatsApp group texts. I chat with my iPhone voice recognition Siri about the weather. I can skip boring 1.0 conversations by multitasking on Facebook. My iPhone has broken my solitary confinement. From now on, I’m living my life online.

Each of these gadgets and apps brings forth social commitments. The fashionistas don’t reign our social system, but the Industrial Designers of technological multinational firms call the shots. It is ‘The Revenge of the Nerds’: Our innovations exclude technological laggards, like us nerds were excluded because of our lagging clothing. Because he who tweets last….