Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cult of Mac
The Street: "Mac Owners Are Snobs"
According to a recent The Street video, they say that Mac users are "snobs." The video, which is based on research by Mindset Media says that Mac owners are more likely:- to be perfectionists
- to use notebooks
- to use teeth whitening products
- to drive station wagons
- to pay for downloaded music
- to go to Starbucks
- care about "green" products and the environment
- to own a hybrid car
- and last but not least ... to buy 5 pairs of sneakers in a year
[via Insanely Great Mac]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 11)
Troy Banther said 2:20PM on 2-17-2008
Here's my response:
1. To be perfectionists.
No but I must have a high degree of accuracy since my job requires it.
2. To use notebooks.
I own a Mini.
3. To use teeth whitening products.
Is this an issue with PC users? I brush, floss and use mouthwash.
4. To drive station wagons.
A 2000 model Chevy Metro. Paid for and still in great running shape.
5. To pay for downloaded music.
I just listen to music. Why pay for it when it's been paid for and its free from online stations?
6. To go to Starbucks.
We don't have one of those here. Tea and water.
7. To care about "green" products and the environment
to own a hybrid car.
Do vegetables count as green?
8. To buy 5 pairs of sneakers in a year.
Sandals.
Reply
inferno10 said 2:22PM on 2-17-2008
On the contrary...
I wish my GPA were higher...
got me on the notebook point
does toothpaste count as a tooth whitening product?
Station wagon??? blech!!! Station wagons are ugly!
I only buy music if it's good, otherwise I pirate
Doesn't everyone go to Starbucks or some cafe nowadays?
Screw green, my Jeep Wrangler gets about 15 MPG!
Owning hybids? Not until they stop being fugly
I have been using these sneakers for over 5 years...haven't purchased since.
Reply
chris gill said 2:24PM on 2-17-2008
* NOT A perfectionist...pretty far from it
* DON'T HAVE A notebook.
* HAVE USED teeth whitening products MAYBE 3 TIMES
* DON'T drive A station wagon
* HAVE PAID for downloaded music, BUT I "BORROW" A LOT OF MUSIC TOO
* DON'T go to Starbucks UNLESS I HAVE A GIFT CARD
* care about "green" products and the environment...WHAT"S WRONG WITH THAT?
* I WISH I HAD A HYBRID
* I buy 5 pairs of sneakers in 5 YEARS.
Reply
Bob6stringer said 2:27PM on 2-17-2008
Generally I wouldn't be shocked to have the findings be accurate, except for the subjective "snob" conclusion. And the "sneakers" thing, which is just odd. As I see it, most americans are liberal, too, until you get political about it. (Fairness for workers; knowledge that our resources are limited; seeing corporate greed as a major problem, etc.)
Reply
Richard said 2:32PM on 2-17-2008
According to Dictionary, Snob is defined as follows:
snob |snäb|
noun
a person with an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth who seeks to associate with social superiors and dislikes people or activities regarded as lower-class.
• [with adj. ] a person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people : a musical snob.
DERIVATIVES
snobbery |-bərē| |ˈsnɑb(ə)ri| noun ( pl. -beries)
snobbism |-ˌbizəm| noun
snobby |ˈsnɑbi| adjective ( -bier |ˈsnɑbiər|, -biest |ˈsnɑbi1st|).
ORIGIN late 18th cent. (originally dialect in the sense [cobbler] ): of unknown origin; early senses conveyed a notion of ‘lower status or rank,’ later denoting a person seeking to imitate those of superior social standing or wealth. Folk etymology connects the word with Latin sine nobilitate ‘without nobility’ but the earliest recorded sense has no connection with this.
I most definitely qualify. Most comments here tried to equate snob with something negative; why?
As for the "survey":
I don't wear sneakers except for sports (I own four pairs I have had for > 4 years), I would not be caught dead in a station wagon (I drive a BMW coupe), I am not a liberal *at all* (dislike the bunch), I don't go to starbucks except to help myself with free brown sugar bags, I don't pay for music I download (then again, I never download music).
Politicians need to help raise the level in our society, not help feed people garbage TV content and wasteful noisy misleading democrat/ republican viewpoints.
Long live the greedy good people of Apple and its users.
Reply
Larson said 2:33PM on 2-17-2008
I'm a wicked computer nerd so being snobby is pretty much out of the question.
What kind of notebook? Paper? Yes. A laptop? For now since I use it at school.
Teeth whitening? I brush twice daily that and that's enough to have white teeth.
Station wagon? Nope.
Pay for music?! Haha don't make me laugh.
I don't drink coffee.
Green products? That would be nice.
Hybrid car? Nope.
Five pairs of sneakers? I've had the same pair for 3 years.
Most of those aren't true for me at least and I'm sure for most people. I think people don't like Macs because they're better than most PCs unless if you build your own.
Reply
Paul said 2:36PM on 2-17-2008
I must not be a true Mac owner then because most of those don't apply to me.
And by most I mean all but one - I care about the environment.
Reply
bobertoq said 2:40PM on 2-17-2008
I don't do any of that! I use a notebook when I am forced to and I pay for my music, but other then that I don't do anything on that list.
Reply
David Emery said 2:40PM on 2-17-2008
Mr Mac User, you stand accused of the following crimes. How do you plead?
to be perfectionists
guilty
to use notebooks
guilty
to use teeth whitening products
not guilty
to drive station wagons
not guilty (I drive a 7 year old pickup bought from a friend when he adopted 2 kids and needed a vehicle that could hold car seats :-)
to pay for downloaded music
guilty, but very infrequently (mostly from http://www.magnatune.com)
to go to Starbucks
guilty (and I feel guilty about it when I fork over the $$ for coffee, but at least I know it's GOOD coffee. See charge #1 above...)
care about "green" products and the environment
guilty, but not obsessively so. I grew up in the multiple-use conservation approach of the '60s and '70s
to own a hybrid car
not guilty
and last but not least ... to buy 5 pairs of sneakers in a year
not guilty. (Bought my last pair of sneakers maybe 5 years ago...
dave
Reply
Michael said 2:45PM on 2-17-2008
The only piece of silliness there is "use teeth whitening products". Teeth should be, well, teeth-colour not white, and bleaching them isn't good for them. I guess that could count as "snobbery" -- doing something you don't need to do in order to feel one up on everyone else. But it's mostly just silliness and an inability to leave well alone.
I can't see that anything else could really count as "snobbery" at all. Paying for things (No. 5) is known as honesty where I come from.
As for "care about 'green' products and the environment" (No. 7) -- I suppose that could be something of a pose but hardly snobbery.
It's certainly a pose if you're making out you're out to save the Universe. The Universe can take care of itself just fine: the point of not littering and polluting your surroundings is not to "save" the Universe, but so that you (and your children and your children's children) don't have to live in a trash heap. That's not "snobbery" but common sense.
The rest are just preferences. And real snobs probably don't own _any_ sneakers and look down on those who do -- or on those who wear them off a squash court at any rate.
As for me _most_ of these items from _The Street's_ list don't apply; some do.
As for the other question, I'm politically conservative -- at least in the negative sense that I don't believe in ideologies (whether Socialist, Liberal, or anything else) but in the value of tradition, custom, and experience:
http://www.conservativeforum.org/EssaysForm.asp?ID=6102
Reply
Kevin Bailey said 6:52PM on 2-17-2008
But should teeth be coffee-color? Or the color of cigarette smoke?
Big John said 2:52PM on 2-17-2008
Sweeping generalizations about a community always turns out well.
Reply
Shawn McBee said 2:56PM on 2-17-2008
Without going into specifics, I either do fit or wish to fit most of those points (I don't have a Hybrid YET). I am not, of course, qualified to judge whether or not that makes me a snob, but let's just say that it is something of which I have been accused in the past.
My main point of contention is this: When, in all the history of the world, has owning a station wagon equated to snobbery?!
Reply
radek said 3:05PM on 2-17-2008
damn... I don't fit into this description... I don't have hybrid station wagon and don't like sneakers :)
Reply
mark said 3:17PM on 2-17-2008
I'd like to see what some of the items in a list would be of the typical Windows user. Let me help get us started:
They are renters.
Their car is more than 10 years old and may not even run.
More likely to have purchased irregular clothing (to save money).
Can barely operate their computer.
Pay someone to run virus scans and clean out their system regularly.
Have more video games than applications on the computer.
Have to call Microsoft to unlock their computer since they have to make endless hardware changes to their system.
More apt to be running Windows 98 than a more current version.
Currently being investigated by the RIAA for piracy because of their extensive LimeWire collection.
Reply
ZeroCorpse said 3:25PM on 2-17-2008
To be perfectionists --- Uhh. No. I like my flaws.
To use notebooks --- Yes. I have a MacBook.
To use teeth whitening products --- Nope. Unless you count normal toothpaste.
To drive station wagons --- I *have* owned one, but it was a hand-me-down when I was younger. Right now I drive an electric bicycle and a Chevy Cavalier.
To pay for downloaded music --- Usually.
To go to Starbucks --- Nope. I prefer Bigby Coffee. Free Wi-Fi, better coffee, fewer yuppies.
Care about "green" products and the environment --- Yes. I am an environmentalist, though not a tree-hugging hippie.
To own a hybrid car --- I drive an electric bike!!! I would probably skip hybrid and go full electric if I were to spend the month. Hybrids are more wasteful right now.
And last but not least ... to buy 5 pairs of sneakers in a year --- I'm not a huge fan of trainers. Last year I bought three pairs, but only because one pair of low-tops was destroyed in a bike accident, and the other (fake chucks) weren't always convenient or comfortable.
So I guess they're mostly right, in my case.
The stereotype I keep getting as a Mac user is that I must be gay, because apparently some guys think that all Mac users are homosexual, and that if you use a Mac you become homosexual against your will.
No. I'm not gay.
Reply
ZeroCorpse said 3:27PM on 2-17-2008
err... spend the MONEY. Not "month" -- I have no idea how that word got in there. Sorry.
Oh. I guess I *AM* a perfectionist.
Hermes said 3:30PM on 2-17-2008
Please watch the video and pay attention to couple things. She sounds really surprised when she says mac users pay for music. Its like she almost wants to say "which stupid person would pay for music these days". Then the part she says "according to survey more mac users are satisfied with their purchase" comes. Because if you are buying a computer , common sense says you are supposed to be desperate. She almost is going to say " How dare you are happy". If you care about environment , research firms are very surprised since caring anything else other than yourself is officially wrong in this age.
It is almost like they are disturbed by the fact that there are still people who doesn't steal, care about environment, and happy with the products they use or coffee they drink.
Reply
Justin Drabnis said 3:38PM on 2-17-2008
I don't fit this profile at all...
I'm not a perfectionist
I don't use notebook(s)
I don't use whitening products (just plane toothpaste)
I drive a '91 honda
I pay for some of my downloaded music
I rarely go to starbucks
I'm not that concerned with "Green" anything
I wouldn't buy a hybrid (maybe in 10 years)
I have 1 pair of sneakers (bought 2 years ago)
AND... I'm a conservative that has spent 3 years serving humanitarian aid in haiti.
Reply
Peter Zich said 3:40PM on 2-17-2008
Besides the notebook thing I think I'm not anything else on there.
Reply