Class signaling via Apple products

[firecat]

"A Macbook Pro is just as much of a status marker as a Louis Vuitton purse or a BMW."

I recoil at the notion because I think Vuitton purses and BMWs signal a different class than ones I identify with. (At least I tend to have prejudices about people who have those things—I'll assume "not like me" unless I get evidence to the contrary.) But I do think that, in California at least, there's a class I might call "hi-tech professionals" and having Mac products can signal identification with it.

FWIW, I think I'm kind of clueless about class.

Anyway, it's interesting to contemplate. What do you think?

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

My MacBook Pro was bought for me by the British Government, via Disabled Student's Allowance. Yes, it's a status symbol - that I'm officially ill enough to need a high-powered graphics machine running Unix at home in order to do my coursework ;)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

A "status marker" isn't something that's tied to any particular status. Torn jeans are a status marker. Stained t-shirts with funny statements about cats are status markers. T-shirts with the names of science fiction conventions, rock bands, sports teams, brands of beer, webcomics are status markers.

A Macbook Pro is a status marker. That doesn't mean that it's not often also the right tool for the job -- but it's a marker that you have a job or life such that a Macbook Pro is the right tool for you.

A Ford F350 is a status symbol, and is often the right tool for the job, and thereby sends the message that your job is one for which a Ford F350 is the right tool.

Very few status symbols are purely status symbols. The ones that are actually good status symbols are that way because they're good at exemplifying some thing about the status they're symbolizing.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I daresay that the MacBook Pro is most likely of the three to be bought for one by someone else as part of the tools they need for their job.

There are jobs which might provide the holder with a BMW, but that says something about the sort of person the employer is seeking to hire.

I am having trouble imagining the job for which an employer needs to buy the employee a Louis Vuitton bag. Unless perhaps the job is "spy."

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, bunch of bollocks. I'll have to tell all the students I work with that have them, that it's just a status symbol toy and not a real computer.

Oh, wait.