Why do iphone users still see their phones as a status symbol
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
Tribalism didn't end when civilization started. Anyone not in the tribe is lesser, because the alternative would mean your tribe is lesser.
More specific to an iPhone, if you have one, you can do all the social iPhone things like FaceTime. Don't have one? You can't FaceTime, so there is a social friction or impediment to socializing. Then there is the "othering" of the green bubble and blue bubble thing. You can't share photos or videos the same if you don't have an iPhone. Since we are in a digital age and less physically present, not being able to digitally socialize the same way also inhibits socialization.
All of this is by design. Apple intentionally creates an ecosystem that will excert social pressure on people to buy their products so they can be part of the group like their friends.
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Apple tells them to.
How does that telling happen, actually?
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That is how they market their products.
And those demographics are very susceptible to marketing and peer pressure. The chat bubble colors are designed to make you think of alternative phone users as outcasts. Used to be the same with photos and videos in MMS.
By your late 20s most people don't give a shit about being labeled outcast, but by then you're locked into their ecosystem.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
They bought it specifically for that purpose.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
I think originally because they used to be only for AT&T customers and were the most expensive, then android started flooding the market with cheap shitty phones.
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Kids are like that. Most adults don’t care.
I may consider "many adults"... I still get grief about it from older adults (I'm talking people in their 40's and older). Though either of us could be correct.
These are people who can't be bothered with how things work, but... are amazing at what they do. So it's an interesting circumstance to observe, and I haven't come to any strong conclusions.
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They bought it specifically for that purpose.
Can't be any other purpose in my personal opinion. Android is better, to me.
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How does that telling happen, actually?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Marketing.
Go back to the Apple/PC ads in the 90's,where the Apple guy was hip, and the PC guy was an old fuddy-duddy in a brown suit.
Apple has always traded on the slickness of their products. They often claim to be the "first" at something, when they really just developed the first seriously marketable version.
iPhone wasn't the first smartphone by years. Just the first one that was slick enough for consumers to bite on, when a year before it was geeky to have such a device.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
Uh, I don’t. It’s just a phone I use. That’s it.
Teenagers and students are just that; teenagers and students. Very often they care about ‘status symbol’ but also sometimes they don’t care.
I would recommend to stop generalizing.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
I see mine for what it is. A phone. And a serious threat to my privacy. (I'm well into my 50s, if this matters)
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How does that telling happen, actually?
Marketing.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
Why do you think they do? That’s not a thing in reality. That said, I don’t chat about mobile phones with a lot of college students at this point.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
Wait people really give a shit? Never seen or heard about that
Source: I’m also a college student
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.. is there ever any logic to what people think are status symbols?
My labubu bandolier says there is.
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I may consider "many adults"... I still get grief about it from older adults (I'm talking people in their 40's and older). Though either of us could be correct.
These are people who can't be bothered with how things work, but... are amazing at what they do. So it's an interesting circumstance to observe, and I haven't come to any strong conclusions.
Those adults might still be children.
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How does that telling happen, actually?
Companies pay groups to run marketing campaigns that push the idea that their product is missing from your life. Exact methods vary but it's often in the form of video and printed advertising. Sometimes you'll see celebrity endorsements or conspicuous product placement in TV/movies. Whatever the people-nerds think will convince the general public to buy.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
As a grown adult, I don’t care what people think about phone brands or multi billion/trillion companies when compared with more of the same. But it’s like sports teams. It doesn’t mean much but it can be fun with friendly rivalries. People who take it seriously though? Not to be taken serious.
I use one because I value privacy. I also have an Android phone from 2019 I like more for a few reasons. I like both. I also like both Xbox and Nintendo. And I don’t hate PlayStation. I don’t use Windows, I use Macs, but at work I’m unofficial IT, people come to the Mac user for help with Windows 10/11 because I know that too, it’s just not what I use at home. I still have like 30 years of experience with Windows. I also have a favorite (gridiron) football team. And I’ll tell you why they suck but I’ll never stop rooting for them. (Don’t have a favorite (association) football club.)
I think tribalism is for people who use things to identify themselves. When you stop doing that, tribalism starts to look dumb.
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How does that telling happen, actually?
Simulated intellect. The same way that big, fake boobs sell products to a particular demographic, so do fake, big brains appeal to another.
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Marketing.
Go back to the Apple/PC ads in the 90's,where the Apple guy was hip, and the PC guy was an old fuddy-duddy in a brown suit.
Apple has always traded on the slickness of their products. They often claim to be the "first" at something, when they really just developed the first seriously marketable version.
iPhone wasn't the first smartphone by years. Just the first one that was slick enough for consumers to bite on, when a year before it was geeky to have such a device.
Their entire premise is "Are you too stupid to work a computer? Now you can do computer things without being a nerd!"
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Kids are like that. Most adults don’t care.
Bullshit. Adults absolutely care. It's human nature to try to project your status in the social hierarchy. That takes different forms and may instead be projecting status with a Stanley flask or Canada Goose jacket, or whatever.
