Last spring, Wired magazine ran a mini-feature on how to make small talk. The tone was that of a pep talk, the advice poignantly remedial. The overall effect was to make the heart bleed for the presumed social ineptitude of the magazine’s tech-savvy readers.
But what if we’re all nerds now? There are those of us who worry we’ve become so immersed in technology—in our laptops and PDAs, our e-mails and text messages—that we no longer know how to talk with each other face to face. Or, worse, that we think it doesn’t matter.