Think of a person wearing an identity-related symbol and you probably think of logos. Noncorporate examples range from military patches to motorcycle-gang emblems, but one of the most appealing is the merit badge. While the classic form is associated with youthful scouts, in recent years the merit badge has crossed over into the adult world and is lately getting a digital twist.
As the name suggests, Nerd Merit Badges recognize a particular flavor of skills and accomplishments. The number of people who actually wear these badges is, admittedly, pretty small.
Then again, the merit-badge idea has surely influenced, directly or not, the many identity symbols that now proliferate in the digital self-representations of social-networking profiles and the like. A recent set of Nerd Merit Badges recognizes the connection between physical- and digital-merit symbols by offering real-world versions of badges used on Foursquare , another social service.
While these and other icons that Nerd Merit Badges now sells in real life were created by a designer, Mari Sheibley for the digital world, their instant-read graphic style translates admirably to embroidery. This design-form confluence is a happy surprise. But much about the function of the merit badge actually fits pretty neatly with the spirit of the time. The nagging sense of needing to acquire new skills, all the time, is palpable. That anxiety dovetails with a self-improvement ethos that fills whole sections of bookstores, cross-matched with the various ways technology prods us to tabulate parodic amounts of personal-behavior data.
And if we use a form associated with preadulthood, it makes sense, since all of the above comes with a chaser of nostalgia and widespread reluctance to completely put away childish things. Tell us what you think. Please upgrade your browser. Site Navigation Site Mobile Navigation. Continue reading the main story. News World U. Politics N.
