Hacker-standard way of suggesting that the person to whom it is
directed has succumbed to terminal geekdom (see
geek). Often heard on
Usenet, esp. as a way of suggesting that the target
is taking some obscure issue of theology too
seriously. This exhortation was popularized by William Shatner on a 1987
Saturday Night Live episode in a speech that ended
Get a life!
, but it can be traced back
at least to ‘Valley Girl’ slang in 1983. It was certainly in
wide use among hackers for years before achieving mainstream currency via
the sitcom Get A Life in 1990.