So, in the last hour or two I’ve spent energy praising Jobs, mentioning some of his flaws, and attacking Apple. So, This is a follow up from what I last wrote about Apple and Steve Jobs.
There is an attitude, encouraged by Apple, that Apple products are undeniably superior products to all others available because Apple made them. I’m not sure where the attitude originates, but I feel I became aware of it in popular culture in the 1990’s. The attitude goes beyond just that Apple makes better products to suggest that questioning whether Apple makes a better product is a poor choice; that Apple has done all the critical thinking and has made the best choices for you so you don’t have to make any choice besides buying Apple.
Further, Apple goes on to push that Apple products are for better people. I like this ad, from Wired magazine in 1999 (source) that associates Apple not only with brilliance but with identity.
With few exceptions (like to avoid self-contradiction), I vehemently oppose this kind of attitude. I am the best person to decide what’s best for me, even better than the late, great Steve Jobs. I take my time to make my decisions and will try most alternatives as I can. I routinely switch through the different web browsers available to see differences and try to find which one is the best for me. While I don’t expect anyone (even myself) to exert that kind of energy before every choice, I do expect to act appropriate to the amount of time they’ve invested in the matter. If someone had only ever driven one brand of car, didn’t know how cars worked, and hadn’t spent any time researching other brands of cars, if they announced that their brand was undeniably the best they’d be viewed as the unreliable source of biased data that they were.
Apple promotes this culture. Genius bars (source) and the majority of the Think Different advertising campaigns are examples of Apple glorifying its user base.
This kind of mentality reminds me of a few other groups that have had a lot of media attention lately. While I can think other examples, I’ll pick on Glenn Beck:
I don’t have strong political opinions, but I identify with the point that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were trying to promote with the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. They were trying to counter cultural extremes through comedy.
I think that Apple has created extremists and now counter-extremists. To those Apple users who are just using Apple and aren’t oozing superiority at every Android, PC, and other non-Apple customer they meet, I apologize for the gauntlets I throw. Still, Apple seems to be focused on reinforcing the extremes. I can’t help but think that this is the effect that Richard Stallman is hoping will begin to subside with Jobs passing.
