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

[senmut]

Umm.

I see the point of the original statement. Around here? It means you go to school at Mizzou, because they get a deal on the MacBooks. But only if you are the Right Kind of Student. The rest of them schlep their Acers and pray the things hold up the full four years.

It may be a different section of the well-to-do, but it is still very much a well-to-do population that carry the Macs. Not like a decade and a half ago when you scrimped for a Mac because they were geek-cred and so what if you couldn't ever afford to get a new one for ten or more years again, they lasted.

[inkstone]

Yeah, I have to agree with the original comment. A certain type of person carries around a Macbook Pro, even around where I live.

[sofiaviolet]

I don't think it's directly comparable to driving a BMW or carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, but Apple products do serve as class signifiers to an extent. I would consider the iPad and iPhone to be more significant signifiers (if that makes sense) than a Mac laptop or one of the simpler iPods. They're still shinynew in a way that laptop computers or mp3 players just aren't, any more. (The iPhone is starting to move out of the shinynew category and its class meaning can cut both ways depending on the other signals given by the person holding it.)

(And I wonder what my beat-up 4+ year old Macbook says, class-wise, with the flimsier bits of plastic on the case starting to chip off. Part of the assumption of the conspicuous brand consumption model of class signage is that the branded products are in new/like-new condition, implying that the person has the money to replace these items on a regular basis.)

[zillah975]

Hmm. I do definitely think it's a status marker, but I also think that "as much of a status marker" isn't the same thing as "marks you in the same class group as".

I mean, the cheapest you can buy a new MacBook Pro is over a thousand dollars, so there's definitely a status thing going on there, as much as with the Louis Vuitton bag or the BMW -- but also as much as owning a pristine 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. Maybe you bought the BMW used, maybe you spent forty years babying the car you inherited when your older brother joined the military, maybe you got a busted MacBook off Craigslist for $250 and fixed it yourself, but wanting and having these things does indicate voluntary membership in the group of People Who Want A [BMW|1970 Barracuda|MacBook Pro].

[firecat]

It may be a different section of the well-to-do, but it is still very much a well-to-do population that carry the Macs.

That makes sense.

[firecat]

It's funny, when I read "carries around a Macbook Pro," I think I might consider carrying one around and using it in public to be a status marker, more than having one you use mostly at home or in an office.

[staranise]

It is totally a class marker. In part because people who are not well-to-do (especially as their year of birth recedes) learned about computers based on what was available to them in classes: what their schools had, what their libraries had, what they took remedial classes in, and so on.

And largely, if you're going to train someone to be employable, you do it on a Windows machine. So unless your school board/public library had a deal with Mac, not Windows, Mac literacy is a sign that you could afford your own Mac to play around with, and could afford the blanket >$1000 to pay for a Mac machine. On the other hand, it's possible to buy your own Windows machine for much cheaper.

[firecat]

I would tend to agree that iPads/iPhones are more of a status signifier than Mac laptops.

[firecat]

"as much of a status marker" isn't the same thing as "marks you in the same class group as".
That makes sense.

I can't imagine anyone carrying a Vuitton for any reason other than that it's a Vuitton. And I know people who swore they had a BMW because it was the best car available. I also know people who leased one when they couldn't really afford it because it was de rigeur for their profession. I don't know if that means Vuitton is more of a status markers than the other things, or if I just don't know squat about Vuitton. (In contrast, I know that Coach bags are status markers and also pretty high quality. Of course, "I only buy The Best" is a status marker in itself...)

[firecat]

That makes sense. Although I thought a lot of schools had Macs. But I don't know, and maybe it's only elite schools.

[staranise]

Mac made deals with a lot of schools, yeah. But to me, "only knowing Windows" also implies class to me, because it's all about access to/use of different kinds of computers. If you're all university students, it's not nearly the kind of class marker as if you're all grocery store clerks.

[inkstone]

Sure but the original post that quoted comment comes from also has this bit: Displaying your Apple stuff proudly is just yet another of our culture's myriad ways to engage in a little subtle classism. and to me, that implies carrying it around and using it in a coffee shop, library or cafe.

[amethystfirefly]

I think an iPad or iPhone is more of a class marker. I think that Macbooks and other Apple computers tend to be seen as a geek cred thing. Sort of a "I finished learning all the good shit on Windoze, so I moved up to an Apple" thing.

[firecat]

"If a status symbol falls in the forest...?"

[firecat]

That's my impression too. Although it's certainly true that Mac laptops are more expensive than Windows ones, so if "being seen with something expensive" = "status marker" then...

[amethystfirefly]

In certain circles, it might be.

[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.

[elainegrey]

I agree with the nuanced parsing " that 'as much of a status marker' isn't the same thing as 'marks you in the same class group as.'" Mac products stand out, and i do think they mark the user. I think there is probably a great deal of context that affects how the marker is read, but i certainly pick up on whether the computer shown is Mac or not in TV shows and movies.

I have to say all three of those consumables are not what i think of as distinctive class markers but more --- there was a term used for Starbucks lattes... conspicuous mass consumption? Other than the cash, i don't see them as as much as a class marker as impeccably tailored clothes, manicures that go beyond the mass mani-pedi options, and perfectly coifed hair. There's something about having the luxury to take the time to be tailored and groomed that i pick up on in places like Los Altos that seems much more significant than brand status. You can't simply buy that presentation, you have to have the time and access to the providers of the services.

[pipisafoat]

I know I didn't pay more than $800 for my (refurbished 15") MacBook Pro. It is the most expensive thing I own, aside from my car, by a long shot. (I think next is a $120 textbook, then my $85 hiking shoes.) I have two iPods, both from 2007 - and I didn't pay for either of them, and one I loaned to my sister for four years after her old mp3 non-iPod player broke. This is a lot of technology, I think! It more than meets my needs. (My loftiest desires? Nah. I'd have to live in a tech store for that.)

My landlady, on the other hand, has an iPod touch and a new iPad, and she can barely use either of them. I've messed around on other people's devices-of-that-nature and offered to teach Landlady how to do whatever she wants to learn how to do on her own, but she turns me down with "If you can't afford one, I don't want to learn how it works from you." She carries these with her to work and pretty much everywhere else and sits there pretending to work on them despite not actually being able to use them. That looks like status marker to me, and that's behavior I associate more with the non-laptop Apple products. (Or, increasingly, the MacBook Air, but in my experience, not the regular MacBooks or the Pros.)

But I have my Pro because I love the Mac interface. Half my previous-college was Mac labs, half Windows. But I also went to a super-nerdy high school where we had access to about a gazillion different operating systems, so when it was laptop-buying time, I knew what I liked best, and I shopped for something that would suit me long-term.

And yes to what someone said in one of the comments - I find every single one of my graphics-related programs works better on my Mac than on comparable PCs. (Not that I'm an artist; I just mess around with stuff. But. It works faster and is more easily controlled and just has a nicer interface or whatever. idk.)

Ooh side note re fashion. I have two friends who carry big-name purses. One uses the same purse every day and treats it like, y'know, a thing that carries stuff but also looks nice. Carry it on a shoulder, half-under an arm. The other has at least forty purses, and each of those purses has either NAME IN LARGE FONT ON SIDE OF PURSE or NAME ON TAG HANGING FROM PURSE HANDLE. These purses are carried by the handles in one hand, arm held at what looks to me an extremely awkward angle to get that purse up there in eyesight. Set on a table in the restaurant when everyone else has purses on the booth beside them. Always with that BRAND NAME facing out. I think that's an (extreme but useful) example of useful object vs status marker - and it all comes down to how the people use it.

(I love my uncle's BMW because it handles really nicely. I didn't notice it was a BMW until after I'd already fallen in love with driving it. I'm observant.)

[hobbitbabe]

I agree with your commenters who point out that "is just as much of a status marker" doesn't have to mean that it signifies the same things about the status.

But also, there's another interesting question. Do the people choose and display the things at least partly in order to have a status marker? Or do they carry them for other reasons, but inadvertently declare something about themselves because they do?

I bought my first iPhone (the first model available in Canada, on the second day they were available) at least partly to impress people and say something about myself. It used to work that way too! Now, it doesn't say as much. I carry it for a lot more reasons now, but it is still a status marker too. It doesn't say early-adopter Apple-fan, but it does say that I have money and value ubiquitous connection.

On the other hand, I didn't choose to get an MEC brand backpack and carry it around for nine years in order to send a signal of "this here is a Canadian, someone who believes in non-profit co-ops, someone who is active outdoors and pays for expensive-ish things but keeps them for a long time." I got it because a family member had the same one in a different colour, and I kept it because it works - but it does signal all those things above to someone in the know.

I wouldn't recognise a Macbook pro as distinct from any other kind of portable Mac computer, and I wouldn't recognise a Louis Vuitton purse either. If you told me that a character in fiction had a Louis Vuitton purse, I'd assume that it was a woman, that she was wearing makeup, was at least 40, and probably had old money. If you told me that a character in fiction had a Macbook Pro, I'd assume that the details of the computer mattered to the character, that he or she probably upgraded frequently in order to do something for self-employment or non-paying passions.

[adrian_turtle]

Now that you mention it, there's some ambiguity in "just as much of a status marker." Until about ten minutes ago, I thought it simply meant, "it marks status just as clearly" [as the other thing.] It's only when I saw how you recoiled that it occurred to me it might also be read as, "it marks just the same status" [as the other thing], or something like approximately the same status.

[firecat]

If you're all university students, it's not nearly the kind of class marker as if you're all grocery store clerks.

True in several different ways, yeah.

[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.

[firecat]

conspicuous mass consumption

I like that phrase.

You can't simply buy that presentation, you have to have the time and access to the providers of the services.

Wearing tailored clothes saves time in the long run, but you have to (a) care enough to bother, and (b) understand where to find such services and how to navigate them.

But I know people of all classes who get regular mani-pedis and hair styling. A lot of sales clerks get them because they are supposed to look put together.

[marahmarie]

I think carrying around anything known as a status marker (Vuitton, Mac Pro, whatever) makes you vapid. Yes, I said "vapid". No, I don't really care if this hurts some Mac Pro carrying person's feelings. You know what I see when I look upon these things? A person whose stuff is more important in identifying them than their own personality could ever be.

How seriously can I take anyone who expects me to figure out who they are, what I can expect from them and what they stand for by looking at what they carry? Not too seriously.

"Look at me: I carry a seriously overpriced piece of cloth with an outrageously priced piece of aluminum with electronics stuck on it sticking out of it so I'm better than you are!"

For me, that's more of a laugh riot than an opportunity to learn where I stand in the pecking order. I work with the public and I can't tell you how many times a day the Vuittons and Mac Pros parade by and I look at the faces attached to them and just try not to smirk.

When your stuff makes you who you are, you've stopped being anyone at all.