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

[cleverthylacine]

Things I think when I see someone has a Mac:

1) They might be an artist. (There is a lot of design software that apparently just works better on a Mac. Unfortunately I don't work better on a Mac.)
2) They don't like fixing their own computers and don't mind doing without it for the time it takes the Apple Store to get it done, because whooboy will Apple not help you fix your own.
3) Somebody had a lot of money at some point in time.
4) They may or may not be technically inclined, but they sure aren't hardware hackers.

Things I think when I see someone has a Mac AND all the up-to-date Apple entertainment devices:

1) Somebody has a lot of money.
2) Somebody is content to let Apple track them everywhere or doesn't know that they are doing it
3) Somebody doesn't care if Apple knows and rearranges every media file they own.
4) Somebody cares an awful lot about having the newest/latest/best/coolest/shiniest

I don't necessarily think high-tech professional, for though I know that many high-tech professionals use Apple devices, people who are really into hacking their boxes use Linux often, and a lot of development is done for Windows machines.

Things I think when I see Louis Vuitton:

1) Somebody has a lot of money
2) Somebody doesn't have much imagination. Vuitton is boring and stuffy and mainly impresses other rich boring people that you are the right kind of rich and boring person. American fashion trends these days are influenced as much by Japan as Europe.

(If you want a purse to last forever you buy Coach plain leather; I associate THAT with genuine old money.)

I care a lot about fashion though. A whole lot.

[firecat]

From inside the "high tech professional" class/subculture, the main thing I think when I see people using their iThings in public is that they have newly acquired a new model of iThing. There's a grace period (which is determined by how long you've had it, and how new that particular model is) where you're allowed to show it off to everyone at the dinner table, and then after that you're supposed to keep it in your pocket/bag.

By high-tech professional, I don't mean hacker so much as "person who works at a company that sells hardware/software or runs web site(s)." A lot of such people don't know a lot about the innards of their machines or OSes.