I’ve absolutely no idea idea if the guy on the bottom is actually the present, aged version of the guy in what’s perhaps the one photo most synonymous with internet/computer geekdom, but a lot of people seem convinced that it is. The photo popped up on Reddit yesterday with no context, of course, and appears as though it may have been take in the same wood-paneled room as the original, which helped to give rise to the annoying “mother’s basement” cliche about bloggers — this guy was the literal poster child for that.
The Daily What surmises that “either he’s just visiting his parents, he inherited his parents’ house, or he loves wood paneling so much that he had to put some in his own basement.” The Reddit comment thread on this is, as you’d imagine, kind of hilarious. Here’s my favorite exchange from the comment thread…
honestquestiontime: The before picture was literally the defining image of geeks and nerds since the dawn of computers. The after pic shows what we have become with time. Eat your hearts out, ladies.
m-p-3: We’re still living in the basement though.
cruesoe: As mother lies mummified in her bed upstairs…
Yes, very true.