Call Me Crazy: Mac Fans Are Just Like Everybody Else

I drive a Dodge. I’ve owned the car for five years now, and I’m pleased to report it’s provided me with reliable and comfortable transportation for the entire time.

For the seven years before that, I drove an eminently useful Plymouth minivan. I still miss its capacious hauling ability. So count me as one of the Chrysler faithful. You say you’ve never encountered a member of the Chrysler faithful before? Well, come to think of it, neither have I.

OK, check this out: I’ve owned only three TVs over the past 15 years, all of them Sonys. They have a nice picture, good features, and a decent repair record. That’s why I keep coming back to Sony.

Clearly, I’m a big-time Sony zealot. What, you’ve never heard of a Sony zealot? Me either.

Now, get this: I’ve used Macintosh computers since 1985. For my time and money, the Mac is easier to use and more reliable than the alternatives. So you’ve got to know, I’m a Mac crazy.

Well, now we’re getting somewhere. Mac crazies we understand. We’ve been hearing about them for years now, most recently, in fact, in last week’s Tech Times column by Dave Wilson.

Dave took great pains to characterize Apple’s loyal customers as goofballs, if for no other reason than they are, well, loyal Apple customers.

Both Dave and I attended the Macworld Expo in San Francisco earlier this month. But in our haste to escape the chill and bluster outside, I’m convinced, we slipped into different buildings.

The Expo I attended was packed full of regular people toting shopping bags, elbowing around the caverns of the Moscone Center, gaping at products. From the bulges in those shopping bags, they were gaping and buying. In other words, it was your typical trade show.

Dave seems to have wandered into a sort of tent revival of glassy-eyed Mac-thumping freaks. From his report, it sounds like they were nabbing Windows users off the street and converting them to the Mac at the point of a keyboard.

I regret to report I didn’t witness a single such moment of proselytizing at Macworld. Maybe it was in one of the “Pro User” sessions I missed. Unlikely.

No, this is simply a daily journalistic occurrence where Apple and the Mac are concerned. The impulse to type “Mac” and “faithful” in the same sentence is just too powerful for many technology writers to resist, like “moth” and “flame.”

When it comes to technology, it’s seemingly more comforting to belittle people who fail to subscribe to a particular product flavor--to paint them as being a bit zany, or worse.

Of course, one alternative to abnormalizing Mac owners is consistency. No matter which product we choose, be it TV, car or computer, we can say it’s theology, not personal preference, that guides us. I don’t know about you, but I could learn to enjoy it.

Say, you’re not one of the Windows faithful, are you?

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--MITCH STONE

Freelance technology writer