While I’ve spent much of my time over the last six months boning up on film knowledge, I must admit I’ve been, until recently, slacking off on following the world of high tech. As a born-and-bred, died-in-the-wool geek, I simply assumed I could step down my daily dork-reading and still have a pretty good sense of the state of the tech industry.

Then, earlier this week, I discovered Ellen Feiss. The subject of one of Apple’s “Switch” ads, Ellen’s “is she stoned?” appeal launched a flurry of activity, from MetaFilter discussions to a slew of fan sites. In short, she’s become something of a web phenomenon. Which, while vaguely amusing, doesn’t perturb me in and of itself. What does bother me is that I’d never heard of Ellen Feiss until this week; yet she’s been a major meme for nearly five months.

Needless to say, I’ve been on Wired and Slashdot every morning since.