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

[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.