Brand Monogomy
With all the choices we Americans are given in our consumer culture, there’s a certain comfort one takes in bounding ones choices to a particular brand. We revel in the fact that our brand is superior to all others, especially since not everyone seems to be as smart as we are in realizing it. However, recently, I’ve begun to realize that my brand loyalties are based on pretty much nothing.
Growing up as a child of the Midwest, I'd gotten used to driving around in Fords, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs. When I busted out on my own and had to choose my own vehicle, I went with the Honda - a well known reliable brand name. I'd been hurt before. I wanted something that would last me years. The community of Honda owners that I knew swore that I would never own another brand of car again. I was also sold on the “perks” that come with owning a Honda – the amazing reliability, the unparalleled resale value, and of course, the best fuel efficiency a V6 engine could give you. Of course, there was also the fact that a Honda was a status symbol - living in the midwest, owning a Honda put you a cut above the rest. You were stylish and worldy, better than the guy next to you driving the domestic car. The only thing better would have been a Volkswagon, but sadly they didn’t suit someone of my stature in 2000.
In 2004 I began to fall in love with Apple, as any good urbanite would. It began with an iPod purchase, and I then aspired for years to replace my common old PC with a shiny sleek Macintosh. When I'd eventually saved enough pennies (a LOT of pennies), I fulfilled my dream and pruchased that Mac. As everyone said I would be, initially I was mesmeried by it's strange ways. Fading menus and rapid icon motion hypnotized me and I was an instant fan. I also had my urban stats symbol. I would never own a PC again, right?
Like all dreams, these two came to abrupt ends. Right around 100,000 miles, my Honda's transmission and alternator "went out". The transmission was 100% covered (by an extended warranty - this had happened to MANY people), but the alternator was not. Strangely they failed ON THE SAME DAY, but Honda ruled that they were separate problems. Curiously, this is the same issue I had with my POS Pontiac Sunbird in 1996. Where's my increase in status!?
The Mac's hard drive died last week. All those friends that told me I had to get a Mac and that it would last forever are now telling me "that's just the hard drive... it could happen to anyone... it's not the Mac." The PC I have owned for nearly three years has never had a hardware failure. Again... I'm missing the increase in status.
My lesson? "Parts is parts." (That's from some SNL skit I can't remember.) While certain expesnive cars and computers may have more features, in the long run they are all made by people and corporations looking to maximize their bottom line. Defects will happen. Accidents will happen. I don't regret purchasing either the Honda or the Mac. What I regret is thinking that somehow owning these things made me smarter than the rest of society. During my next search for a car or a computer, I'll be sure to expand the search radius a bit.
Growing up as a child of the Midwest, I'd gotten used to driving around in Fords, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs. When I busted out on my own and had to choose my own vehicle, I went with the Honda - a well known reliable brand name. I'd been hurt before. I wanted something that would last me years. The community of Honda owners that I knew swore that I would never own another brand of car again. I was also sold on the “perks” that come with owning a Honda – the amazing reliability, the unparalleled resale value, and of course, the best fuel efficiency a V6 engine could give you. Of course, there was also the fact that a Honda was a status symbol - living in the midwest, owning a Honda put you a cut above the rest. You were stylish and worldy, better than the guy next to you driving the domestic car. The only thing better would have been a Volkswagon, but sadly they didn’t suit someone of my stature in 2000.
In 2004 I began to fall in love with Apple, as any good urbanite would. It began with an iPod purchase, and I then aspired for years to replace my common old PC with a shiny sleek Macintosh. When I'd eventually saved enough pennies (a LOT of pennies), I fulfilled my dream and pruchased that Mac. As everyone said I would be, initially I was mesmeried by it's strange ways. Fading menus and rapid icon motion hypnotized me and I was an instant fan. I also had my urban stats symbol. I would never own a PC again, right?
Like all dreams, these two came to abrupt ends. Right around 100,000 miles, my Honda's transmission and alternator "went out". The transmission was 100% covered (by an extended warranty - this had happened to MANY people), but the alternator was not. Strangely they failed ON THE SAME DAY, but Honda ruled that they were separate problems. Curiously, this is the same issue I had with my POS Pontiac Sunbird in 1996. Where's my increase in status!?
The Mac's hard drive died last week. All those friends that told me I had to get a Mac and that it would last forever are now telling me "that's just the hard drive... it could happen to anyone... it's not the Mac." The PC I have owned for nearly three years has never had a hardware failure. Again... I'm missing the increase in status.
My lesson? "Parts is parts." (That's from some SNL skit I can't remember.) While certain expesnive cars and computers may have more features, in the long run they are all made by people and corporations looking to maximize their bottom line. Defects will happen. Accidents will happen. I don't regret purchasing either the Honda or the Mac. What I regret is thinking that somehow owning these things made me smarter than the rest of society. During my next search for a car or a computer, I'll be sure to expand the search radius a bit.
posted by Marty Stroodler at 10:07 PM
1 Comments:
Any person on a Mac, PC, Linux, Kaypro or whatever computer who is NOT backing up their hard drive is living in a fools paradise. Brand affiliation will not save you from the touch of data death.
Macs are still sexier, though, because the Time Machine feature in Leopard makes backing up so painless.
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