Especially teens and college students
Source: i’m a college student
I don’t see it as a status symbol. Hate is a strong word… I could describe the process I go through just to save a jpeg, but I don’t have the patience. It’s simply the cheapest phone that I consider secure.
I’m a college student and I don’t feel this way at all. Maybe you’ll get some quick jokes about being a poor Android user sometimes but it’s mostly playful.
I convinced my college friend to try out Android and he likes his moto flip fold phone now.
Apple has cleverly made their phones a luxury symbol. In 2014, Apple hired the CEO of Burberry, Angela Ahrendts to be their Vice President. I believe this was the period when their Apple stores got a huge revamp to look all clean and minimalistic.
But in general, I don’t think anybody really gives a shit. Even less so the ones ones who actually know about technology.
Only poor people think a phone is a sign of wealth
I don’t. I just use the phone because it works well with my laptop. My previous one was all banged up and scratched, so I wouldn’t really call it a status symbol.
I don’t really care about status though. My friends are a bunch of misfits. If it bothers you that people are using something as a status symbol, perhaps you’re more concerned about status than you realize. I’d love to just advise you to stop caring about that but it’s not that easy. Status seeking is a pretty common, normal behaviour.
They don’t. You do.
It’s just a phone? I’d have an android or fairphone if my job didn’t have apple devices and apps I use all the time. Just makes sense to not need two sets of a lot of things.
Cuz they’re overpriced? More money = More “exclusive.”
Once something becomes statusy, is seems pretty rare that it ever stops. You can’t outcompete Apple at being Apple, and to stay exclusive they can just keep prices up.
It genuinely was revolutionary when it came out. I guess they managed to leverage that into being a luxury brand, when no further world-breaking innovations were forthcoming. The only thing those really have to worry about is staying relevant, as opposed to going the way of fine china and monocles.
I remember a friend of mine whining about how my text bubble was a different color and it “made it weird” to text because of that.
By then I was already super over the whole tribalistic iphone/android bs from people I know when it wasn’t being meme’d on, so I just told her “you can either get over it, or we can stop talking and being friends”
Wouldn’t you know it, the color of a text bubble isn’t enough to end a friendship over.
Kids are like that. Most adults don’t care.
Bullshit. Adults absolutely care. It’s human nature to try to project your status in the social hierarchy. That takes different forms and may instead be projecting status with a Stanley flask or Canada Goose jacket, or whatever.
Most adults don’t use their iphones as status symbols. Look at 10 random adults iphones and over 9 of them will be damaged.
I’ve managed iphones for hundreds of people and only encountered a few that care at all.
BlackBerry holdovers would be a different discussion though.
Those aren’t adults. Those are geriatric children.
Soooo, adults?
Don’t pretend we’ve ever been better than that as a species. The exact form it takes changes (who does ermine fur anymore?) but the idea stays the same.
Don’t pretend we’ve ever been better than that as a species.
Will you make the argument that people who refuse to follow such fashion trends are somehow inhuman?
If you are unwilling to make such an argument, I will not accept your premise that this is a trait of the “species”.
What you (and the parent comment) are describing is a characteristic of certain childish behaviors, philosophies and cultures.
The sophomoric behavior of these geriatric children is not an indictment of humanity in general.
More like, most common allele within the species.
What’s the culture where people don’t covet meaningless status symbols? Even hunter gatherer cultures have generated examples, and they can’t own much more than they can carry.
What’s the culture where people don’t covet meaningless status symbols?
While there are numerous examples of such philosophies and cultures around the globe, I don’t actually need to identify such a culture to demonstrate my point.
If one can remain human without engaging in this behavior, this behavior is not a characteristic of the human condition.
The question before you is whether the members of such a hypothetical culture are inhuman specifically because they do not engage in that covetous behavior.
The abhorrent behaviors being described are conditions of ideas held by certain members of the species. The species is not lessened by the rejection of such ideas. The “certain members” are lessened by their adherence to those ideas.
“Adults”.
I may consider “many adults”… I still get grief about it from older adults (I’m talking people in their 40’s and older). Though either of us could be correct.
These are people who can’t be bothered with how things work, but… are amazing at what they do. So it’s an interesting circumstance to observe, and I haven’t come to any strong conclusions.
Those adults might still be children.
Ah, no true
scottsmanadult, then.
I disagree, kids are taught by adults, so whatever they are learning its from their teachers and families. In my experience I have seen more adults give a status symbols to Apple products than children.
Cheapest iPhone is $600, cheapest android phone can go as low as $20 (like those walmart prepaid phones locked to a carrier).
When the average person think of android, instead of thinking about a flagship samsung phone, they think of the lowest budget phone.
So in their mind, if you have android, you’re automatically categorized as “poor”/“cheap”, regardless how much it actually costs.
I see my deGoogled Android device as a higher status symbol than any overpriced stock Apple device.
Because they paid a lot of money for them and they need to convince themselves that it was worth the cost.
… is there ever any logic to what people think are status symbols?
My labubu bandolier says there is.
labubu
What the hell is that? Are beanie babies popular again?
Pretty much, yeah.
cost is an easy reason/ barrier. but there’s others like membership and other exclusivity options being offered out there.
That is how they market their products.
And those demographics are very susceptible to marketing and peer pressure. The chat bubble colors are designed to make you think of alternative phone users as outcasts. Used to be the same with photos and videos in MMS.
By your late 20s most people don’t give a shit about being labeled outcast, but by then you’re locked into their ecosystem.
Tribalism didn’t end when civilization started. Anyone not in the tribe is lesser, because the alternative would mean your tribe is lesser.
More specific to an iPhone, if you have one, you can do all the social iPhone things like FaceTime. Don’t have one? You can’t FaceTime, so there is a social friction or impediment to socializing. Then there is the “othering” of the green bubble and blue bubble thing. You can’t share photos or videos the same if you don’t have an iPhone. Since we are in a digital age and less physically present, not being able to digitally socialize the same way also inhibits socialization.
All of this is by design. Apple intentionally creates an ecosystem that will excert social pressure on people to buy their products so they can be part of the group like their friends.
