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

[ailbhe]

That was kind of my point. Having a computer that suits my life, and a nice bike, and particular clothes and shoes, are all perfectly reasonable things within my life which make sense, practically and economically - and people looking at me can make *reasonably accurate* judgments on my social standing based on the material goods I own. That doesn't make *any* of them status *symbols*, but that I use them all for useful utilitarian things doesn't stop them being status *markers*.