Thanksnerding: One Part Nerd, All Parts Thanksgiving

As I see it, you have two choices at the holidays: spend it with your family or spend it with friends. Each has their merits of course, although in my case, spending it with friends usually involves considerably more alcohol. And this is why, this Thanksgiving, I was only too overjoyed to accept an invitation from digital maven Micki Krimmel of Neighborgoods fame and her co-hostess Cris Dobbins for a potluck dinner at their office affectionately dubbed Thanksnerding.

Photo Credit: Micki Krimmel

For the most part, the dinner was traditionally as I always remembered it: all of us fought for the oven, which incidentally had never been used before this moment, we all ate far too much and fell asleep moments after and, finally, cue board games.

However, being that I was in the presence of my fellow nerds, there was also a considerable amount of social media during our holiday meal. Social media in the presence of digerati is very analogous to smoking socially: we're doing it as a collective so let's all participate together. Where is the line between enjoying the moment and sharing the moment? Instagram being the popular drug of choice these days, we all took to our feeds to post pictures of the sleepy aftershocks. We all commented on each other's photos. At what point are we removed from the moment at hand while we navigate our mobile devices?

I really have no idea the answer to this question but Thanksnerding was a fine opportunity for me to have a good think on it. In the meantime, try borrowing something on Neighborgoods on this fine Black Friday rather than buying a bunch of crap you don't need. Collaborative consumption gives you something else to be thankful for.