Emotion and computing
I’ve long thought it an odd criticism about Apple products that people’s preference for them is in part driven by emotional response. Andy Ihnatko for Chicago Sun-Times makes an astute observation in this area regarding the iPad:
Of course people have an emotional response to this iPad. Why is that considered a negative thing? An emotional response that lasts more than five seconds is a sign that something actually works.
Hey, I just starting reading your site, and I’ve gotta say, I’m really enjoying it.
Anyway, I wanted to add my two cents to this, being a person that used to not like Apple very much, but now owns a MBP and loves it, just not as much when it’s running OS X. I think the reason that people view this emotional response as a negative thing is not just because of the emotional response, but for several other reasons as well.
First we need to identify who is complaining. I feel like the majority of the people that complain about Apple Fanboys being very emotional are people that are pretty into technology, or what some people would consider nerds. Now most nerds also get emotional and excited about products, and they don’t view this negatively. I’m sure there were plenty of nerds that got really pumped and extremely excited when Intel released their i7 processors a while ago (me included). However, the traditional person that likes technology is one that gets excited by functionality. Now I’m not saying that the iPad is not functional (it definitely has its purposes), but the large majority of the technologically inclined community outside of Apple Fanboys feel that way. The thing that ends up bothering them is the excitement that arises from a product that they have collectively determined is nothing incredibly functional. This was pretty easy to see with the iPad, since many people viewed it as a giant iPod Touch. Once they were already convinced that the iPad was stupid, it can become extremely easy to see why they get angered when someone is waiting in line for an iPad for a day and a half screaming OMG THIS THING IS GOING TO CHANGE MY LIFE MORE THAN MY CHILDREN DID. I guess it’s also easy to see this if you reframe it in terms of music. When there are a bunch of preteen girls screaming for Justin Beiber, it usually ends up upsetting music fans. Now our friend Andy Ihnatko would say “why is this a negative thing? surely the sign that there are little girls screaming at Justin Beiber means that he creates excellent music!” However, it is much easier to see whats going on in this circumstance. Those girls are screaming because they think Justin Beiber is cute, and because he sings about things that are easy to hook preteen girls with. If you go back to the Apple situation now, you can see that the majority of people screaming about the iPad aren’t excited because it has an A4 processor that is extremely good with handling the application loads and multitasking. They aren’t excited because it uses an incredible milling technique that creates higher structural integrity. They aren’t interested in the fact that it uses Lithium Polymer batteries that provide far longer runtime than Lithium Ion batteries. They’re screaming because it looks sexy and is made by Apple (not all of them, the majority). This is what makes nerds angry I guess… an emotional response that was not initiated by something that a technologically inclined person deems worthy of that response.
I look forward to reading your site!
I think you’re on the money with your comment. Like you say, I think a lot of the emotional response comes down to a difference of opinion regarding what you can ‘do’ with something. Tech nerds like to tinker with machines; they get excited by specs. By comparison, the general public gets excited by what they can do in terms of being ‘productive’ (whether that’s work or play), and enjoy devices that make this easier. However, they don’t care whether they’re powered by Intel, an A4 or well-trained hamsters.
I suspect much of the emotional response from Apple’s products is down to ‘it just works’, which is, absurdly rare elsewhere in the industry.
Anyway, thanks for the comment and I hope you continue to enjoy the site.