Uncivil Rites
Time was,there was some measure of decorum in the marketplace. (Of course, that was back in the day when one and all would have been horrified by the mere thought of someone calling the President a liar in the midst of a Congressional address.) That day seems to have passed, however, with yet another milestone to note: David Pogue in the NYTimes writes of the “unusually voluminous and, in some sectors, vitriolic” response to his coverage of Google’s introduction of its Nexus One phone. Seems that Android fans and iPhone fans are as fractious and immiscible as Wm F. Buckley and Gore Vidal.
The tech industries have long been fertile ground for cultivating such strong feelings, of course: what other set of SIC codes could glorify an employee as an “evangelist?” From the earliest days of Usenet — and probably Darpanet before that — flames have taken advantage of the remoteness and abstraction of the ‘Net: You don’t have to face the object of your invective. It’s not even your handwriting, for goodness’ sake. We have had UNIX wars, supporters of everything from Windows and Macs to open source software are described as “bigots,” and many other geekworld manifestations of the same hormonal impulses driving cage fights and NASCAR (and no, WWE is different: That’s entertainment! Albeit on steroids. Kind of like baseball. But I digress.)
The point seem to be, we’re just fans. And like any other fans, we’re committed to our team to the exclusion of rational argument. We have apparently passed the point where we can even agree to disagree without pointing out that said disagreement makes the other guy an idiot. Preferably with CAPS LOCK on.
Marketeers observe all this with a highly crocodilic tear dangling suspiciously from the corner of one eye. Engagement is engagement, after all, and that kind of loyalty should not bear the burden of courtesy, consideration, or other human attributes once considered virtues. Those wonderful ads anthropomorphizing the Mac and the PC have a wonderfully light touch, but Apple’s true believers take them as Gospel, building up the knowledge-working-class resentment of PC users, resulting in . . . WELL,YOU KNOW!
Of course, I could be wrong: Maybe it’s really all about errant fingers and the CAPS LOCK key.
Explore posts in the same categories: UncategorizedTags: android, civility, courtesy, flames, iphone, mac, marketing, pc, tech
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January 14, 2010 at 9:17 pm
[...] connection, and therefore could do nothing with said link.) has made a titanic splash in the marketplace, apparently enough to lure even jaded cocooners out into the dark of the theater. The IMAX 3D [...]
January 20, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I can’t say that I sympathize with David Pogue, who gets a lot more mileage out of his NYT affiliation that most other NYT writers.
But I’m just bemused by all these vitriolic responses. But who really cares about fanatics? They don’t build products (though many write about them).
I appreciate it when a writer says a product is half-baked. Especially when the writer/blogger gets them for free. Tell it like it is please, the rest of us poor schlubs have to pay for these things.