Lately, there are a lot of people tossing the word “geek” around as the new cool label in town.  Personally, I don’t quite remember this to be the case when I was in high school.  I know that many geeks, including myself, wished that being flagged as a “geek” got them the attention of that cute boy or girl, or better yet, the homecoming king or queen title.  Nevertheless, geeks grew up being themselves.  They were devoted to their studies and passionate of all intellectual things, especially science and technology.  They hardly had any time to mingle in social activities that most other teenagers were able to attend or experience, such as homecoming, bonfires, and chaperoned house parties with the cool, popular kids.

Today, geeks can attribute their success through their smarts, hard work, and passion to solve problems.  It is true that geeks shall inherit the earth.  We have already seen a small glimpse of this happening.  The tech geekette Justine Ezarik, also famously known as iJustine, casually hangs out with Ashton Kutcher.  Hollywood celebs, LeVar Burton and Tony Hawk, gave a talk at the Twitter Conference in front of a live audience of tech geeks.  Chamillionaire, a talented rapper, is now a staple at tech events.  The tech community is slowly merging with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and forming as one.

Is this a good sign for the Silicon Valley geeks and community?  Yes and no.  Hollywood, endearingly referred as Tinseltown, is one of the few superficial central hubs in the U.S. that survives solely on good looks, fame, and money. The glamour of Tinseltown attracts huge mass media, both nation and worldwide.  By combining efforts of tech and Hollywood, the geeks are finally being recognized and praised for their contribution and impact to society.

On the down side, the merge may cause the seemingly innocent and untainted geek world to experience a bit of the superficial Hollywood effect.  In L.A., a single, young, and attractive individual who can turn heads, sometimes can find love to be a bit difficult.  They are competing with other beautiful people that have better surgically enhanced traits.  They are being judged on their looks every day.  Gold diggers, both males and females, run abundant in Hollywood, while the powerful and wealthy men and women have the pick of the crop of the superficially enhanced.  As a result, it’s hard to know whether the person is genuine or not.

Silicon Valley has inherited some of the superficial Hollywood effect.  Sometimes, it feels as though the tech bubble is trapped in a rap video. Scantily-clad dressed women are hired to work at booths at tech conferences to promote new startups and products.  Some of these male geeks have tried creating a special application for the iPhone to locate “geek diggers.”  Instead of a time where smart women should be praised for their mind and not as sexual objects, this outlook is going to have the female geeks work ten times harder than they have already been doing to gain the respect in an industry that is predominantly all male.

Will these geeks be able to find love or be seduced by all the fun of the glitz and glamour that Tinseltown has trickled into Silicon Valley? According to the Wall Street Journal and other blogs, they believe that Silicon Valley is the new hot spot for young professionals to find love.  This comes as good news, but personally, I believe that finding love might be tougher than before.  It’s already hard for an attractive, single person to survive and find love in the superficial world, but to have a geek be sucked into this new found fame and power when they never experienced this kind of attention previously, it’s going to be a bit more brutal and overwhelming.

What does this mean to all of us?  It just means that the tech social scene has been reinvented.  Silicon Valley has been spooning Hollywood over the past few years.  If it were not for the birth of Facebook and Twitter, no one would believe that Silicon Valley and Hollywood have been and are currently forking each other.  Nevertheless, as geeks, we’re smart and able to adapt to situations and find solutions to problems.  Tim Ferriss, for example, outsourced his love life by hiring individuals to set up dates for him.  Developers are constantly creating dating websites and iPhone applications.  There are love coaches that specialize in helping geeks find love.  These methods may not work for all of us, but it’s in the right direction.  Yes, it’s going to be a tough journey, but I truly believe there’s hope in finding love in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.  Don’t you?