The question has been debated furiously on the internet now for a couple years with passionate people on both sides trying to prove and justify their point. I will admit I was one of those people for quite some time with my feet buried firmly in the ground as to what someone else should pick. I have realized though that therein lies the problem. I was trying to decide for someone else what they should choose as the device or tech they needed. Really, and you must agree, that this was extremely arrogant of me. I had the audacity to tell someone else what they should be buying and using and many times without knowing any or all the facts I needed to do so. True I do private tech consulting for some wealthy people and they depend on my advice for their tech but at the end of the day it is nothing more than opinion smattered with random facts.
So with that said I intend to address several points in this and following articles. They are the Why, What and How of choosing tech or tech devices. As for the other 2 of When and Where those are controlled a lot by your environment and not really a fit for this series. The three (3) points are as follows:
- Why do people insist on a particular tech to everyone they talk to.
- What are the key factors someone should honestly consider when choosing tech.
- How can you choose which tech is right for you.
In these articles I am not going to promote Apple over Window or vice-versa. Instead I am going to try to educate you, the reader, in how you should go about honestly deciding which one is truly right for you without the hype and emotional drama that seems to surround these decisions today. In the end my desire is this, when you finish reading these articles you can take an objective rather than emotional view of technology and your needs when choosing such. Just FYI on the note of not being emotional I am a firm believer that every purchase you make in your life is based, in some form or fashion, on emotion, but that is for a future article. Also I will for the sake of briefness in this and following articles use the term tech. this is a catch all for any Technology Platform, Brand or Device (i.e.; Apple vs. Microsoft Brand or iPhone vs. Windows Phone 8 or even iPad vs. Surface RT).
Passion and Tech
First why do people insist on a particular tech when either recommending one or debating over which is better. They do so for the following reasons:
· Because of passion for what they believe to be true.
· They are trying to justify the purchase they made by getting other to make the same decision.
· They are sometimes misinformed about facts of the tech either they own or feel strongly against.
· Most people are followers rather than self-deciding leaders.
· Fanaticism or unreasoning loyalty to a particular Brand.
They believe it so it is true
What do I mean you ask? Well, let me explain. People in general are passionate about many things they own. In most cases though they do not show that passion because it really does not matter to anyone else so it stays hidden. When the opportunity presents itself, however, this passion can come out in all its glory for the whole world to see. Passion that people have for the things they own is not new with the advent of “tech toys”. Rather it is an old and long rival. Let’s take a familiar yet age old passion that has run it gambit, especially in the Midwest states of the United States. What I am referring to is the Chevy vs. Ford argument. For years car owners have passionately defended the brand of their choice. This passionate battle has taken place in backyard family picnics bantering to knockdown drag out bar brawls that many times ended in one or all the parties ending up in a drunk tank in the local jail. I think that this well illustrates the issue that we see today quite well. Car for many was a statement about the individual and the same is true for people and their choice of tech today. People feel strong about what the tech that they have. They fell it says something about them. It has a way of making them feel proud when displaying or talking about it with others. And there it is, the emotional part of it all and the drive for the passion.
Justification and Rationalization
Another reason that people are passionate is that they are trying to simply justify or rationalize what they purchased. I like to use the saying “Misery loves company” when describing this point. When we purchase an item we feel that we made the best choice possible at that time. Now with many purchases it is easy to change your mind and return it or exchange it for something different, like choosing a restaurant or a set of exercise DVDs. If however you find out you were wrong about that choice you made with the tech you purchased you cannot, for the most part, go out and get something else and try that. The sheer cost of the tech prohibits such action for 95% of the buyers out there. So once you make a choice you are stuck with it for an extended period of time. So in an effort to justify and to make yourself feel better about what you purchased, you hype the positive points, down play the negative points and try to persuade the other individual to do what you did. To illustrate this in action walk into any cell provider store, like Verizon or AT&T, and ask the sales person to show you the phones they have for sale and ask about all the different features and qualities they have. Then when he/she is done ask them which one they feel you should get, if they have not already done so. Then once they have walked through the entire sales shpeal, ask them to show you their phone. I am willing to guess that 9 out of 10 times it will be the same exact phone that they have. Why, because they are trying to justify their purchase also.
The Misinformed Masses
At times people become misinformed about the facts surrounding either the tech they actually own or the competitor product. I have seen, so many times in internet banter, blatant misinformation about the tech they are talking about. Rather than spewing facts they are relying on gossip and conjecture or even outright lies about the tech they are discussing. Why do people do this? Well, a couple reasons come to my mind.
First, ignorance of the facts. I am not calling everyone ignorant but rather lack of true and accurate knowledge of the facts. People assume something and then that is their perception of it. We know all too well that perception is reality for all and reality is fact. I can illustrate this point with the perception people had of the world in what is commonly called the “Dark Ages” of the progression of human society.
Popular wisdom was that the world was flat. And if you sailed too far you would fall off. Today we laugh at those individual for being ignorant of the facts and allowing their perception and superstition to distort the facts that they felt were reality. Well, why did they think that? Mainly because so many of the philosophers or teachers of the time said so which made it good enough for them since these were of the more educated individuals. Also is the fact that many seafarers of the time did not return and were never found. It was assumed they fell off the edge, why else would they not want to return or complete their assigned voyages. Fact of the matter was they were misinformed and this lead to poor decisions including the retarding of much exploration of the world until about 400 years ago.
Much of the information on the internet also comes from what I will classify as gossip. That being he/she said that this or that tech cannot do this or that. Well since it is on the internet it must be true, right? Or maybe this person may be a reliable source of information on other things so we assume that they are also completely correct on this matter as well. It seems that if we read it on the internet or in an advertisement we tend to believe without checking for ourselves the facts about the matter. This creates a dangerous platform on which to base purchasing decisions on. Even if the person is a geek guru and knows all kinds of technical babble, this alone does not make him, or her, an expert on the entire realm of tech out there and its capabilities.
Lead Astray
Sorry to say this but, a majority of you reading this article, are “sheep without a sheppard” as it were when it comes to many things in life including tech. Why am I accusing you of this? Well because it is true. You may not like to admit it but it is a fact of life. This is especially true in well developed countries. The masses tend to follow the few. This is why so many advertisements utilize famous and well liked or respected individuals to promote products. People want to feel, even if it is in some small way they can be like the individual being portrayed using the product. It gives them a sense of comradery, at least in their minds, with the individual.
Same is true for our tech choices. People in general don’t really want to standout as the person that is different from everyone else. This is probably, for most part, an emotional scar left over from years of grade school and high school. Back in then if you were different is some way that made you stand out, you become an outcast. You became the target of jokes and bulling and being made fun of. How ironic it is that, as adults we still suffer from this in some, not so small, way.
Many times our choices are driven by this emotional need not to standout rather than fit into the crowd. Though so many advertisements are geared to say this product will make you an individual, it seems in reality, subconsciously we don’t want that. Rather we want to be part of a greater crowd of individuals, no matter if that crowd is marching to the proverbial cliff or not, we tend to follow. This is obviously the most irrational part of the decision process but probably the hardest to overcome. This is because it is so deeply ingrained in our psyche.
Fanboy
Finally there is fanaticism or loyalty to a particular tech. This is a compilation, really, of all the above items into one and then taken to the extreme. This is the end result of the items above being pulled together over a potentially long period of time.
People who become fanatics for a particular tech, in my opinion, have an unhealthy attachment to it. They tend to rant and many time become verbally violent and at times and vulgar while trying to get their point across. They are unwilling in any capacity to listen to reason or have an open mind on a different point of view. Their opinion becomes fact and that is the end of the matter as far as they are concerned.
Unfortunately for them they are investing a large amount of emotional energy and effort in this area. Why is that a problem you might wonder, other than the obvious simple mindedness of it?
Well easiest way to illustrate this is with the following question. Which is better for playing movies on your TV? Is it a VHS or Betamax tape? Some of you reading this or probably wondering what in the world I am referring to while others of you are laughing right now to yourself saying, “Yeah I remember that”. See in the 80s there were two (2) “camps”, as it were, around the medium for playing movies at home. Both had very similar form factors and did what they did very well. Eventually VHS won out due to a particular niche of the movie industry pressing forward with VHS. That however is not the point. Rather the point is where they are now? They are both irrelevant. Within 10 years of the mass market owning a VHS or Betamax tape players they were made obsolete by DVD players. Today we are starting to see that DVD players my become obsolete in the not so distant future thanks to high speed internet, DVR devices, services like Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime.
Simply put, tech comes and goes but we stay. We are the only constant in the ever changing world of tech. Tech is meant to fill our needs and wants, whether realized by us or not. Seems to me that the fanboy of a particular tech are so very short sighted in the stances they take.
Learn from other mistakes
So how can you use this information to your benefit? First be resolved to not emulate the follies identified above.
First and foremost I think is don’t plant your feat in the ground before knowing the facts. So many set out with a preconception in their mind and this becomes a handicapping in the process.
Third don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the emotional hype of a particular tech.
Forth don’t be swayed by the thought process, “Well all my friends have it so I have to have it.” You are really selling yourself short if you do. Because you are letting someone else decide for you what is right for you.
Finally don’t be distracted by the fanboys either. Let them waste their time and energy but don’t waste yours on them. Also like the sign say in the parks “Don’t Feed the bears”. Don’t you feed the fanboys fire by getting in the middle of their rants. It is a waste of time.
Next article I will be discussing: What are the key factors someone should honestly consider when choosing tech.
