Blecchhhh... Ptooooie.

Sorry to say the whole original article isn't available without registration at Ad Age:

Mac Owners Are Just Like, Well, the Mac Guy
Study: Apple Computer Users Less Modest but More Open Than General (Read: PC) Population

By Beth Snyder Bulik

So it's not just that Mac guy in the "Get a Mac" ads who thinks he's better than everyone else. Apparently so do many of the people who use Apple's computers.

Research from internet ad network Mindset Media confirms the ad's personification of Mac users as superior and self-satisfied.

Its recent Mac user "mind-set profile" -- a psychographic ranking system that scores respondents on 20 different elements of personality -- found them to be more assured of their superiority, less modest and more open than the general population.

Mindset did not work with Apple, Microsoft or any other PC company for its survey of 7,500 Nielsen online consumers. The questions were structured so Mindset could discover information about groups they were interested in -- in this case, Mac and PC users.

Far fewer cohesive personality traits emerged among PC owners, likely because of the breadth of PC ownership. Given that 95% or so of all computer users own a PC, those users essentially are the general population.

[...]

While Mac adoption is being propelled by several forces -- such as the iPod halo effect, along with the dismal reception of Microsoft Vista, aided by Mac price drops and feature extensions -- Apple's clever and consistent marketing also deserves credit.

Must we make this a Mac vs. PC war? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mac nuts don't have a holy book that commands them to convert or kill anybody who favors a PC. Smugness about one's choice of computing machine might be annoying, sure, but it's decidedly undeadly.

I didn't say it was deadly, I just said it was smug.

> Mac nuts don't have a holy book

Apparently they've got a "temple"....

If you think those two are bad you should have seen what I saw going into my local Walmart last week... While I was leaving the store, I saw a woman being lead into the store by her husband in the full get up... covered head to toe including her face.... ugghhh... I am all about freedom of choice but that shit pissed me off to no end... it was maddening and creepy all at the same time..I wanted nothing more than to run over and snatch that stupid rag off her face... if I had been thinking clearly I would have snapped a pic with my phone to send to Amy...

The full-body getup that some of the Islamic women wear creeps me out way more than the ones who just wear the headscarves. When I see those, I get paranoid.

Slightly off-topic, but I saw the strangest thing the other day- and I wish I could remember where- Some young (probably teen-age) women wearing pastel, embroidered headscarves, along with prairie-type long dresses. They were definitley not middle eastern; I think one was actually a blonde. I guess the head covering looked like what nuns used to wear, but decorated. What other religions make girls cover their heads? Maybe a more extreme type of Pentecostal? (I saw an FLDS polygamist lady at the Apple store here in Austin after the raids a couple of years ago. That was odd.)

I drive through North Philly three days a week, and I see Muslim women all over the place. They seem a little unclear on the concept... sometimes you see them hitting on guys or swearing at their kids, which is pretty funny.

But you see them in the full get-up... abaya, niqab, everything. Headscarves aren't a big deal to me, personally. The abaya/niqab combo is a bit startling, though I'm used to it now.

> it was maddening and creepy

&

> The full-body getup that some
> of the Islamic women wear
> creeps me out

These feelings of "creepiness" aren't trivial. I'm starting to think the French are on to something by making this "illegal." We're the modern world, for Chrissake... If we think it's not safe to stand in line at the bank (or anywhere else) dressed like that, then we can pass laws. An airline pilot who wore a Batman cowl would be put up on charges, no?

(I have no idea why the word illegal is in quotes in the preceding comment... Go figure)

>>Slightly off-topic, but I saw the strangest thing the other day- and I wish I could remember where- Some young (probably teen-age) women wearing pastel, embroidered headscarves, along with prairie-type long dresses. They were definitley not middle eastern; I think one was actually a blonde. I guess the head covering looked like what nuns used to wear, but decorated. What other religions make girls cover their heads?

ahw,
They were probably one of the following from wiki - who often look like bonny, apple-cheeked cousins of the women in Amy's picture - except the former get their pix snapped by tourists who think they're cutely quaint!

"Plain people are Christian groups characterized by separation from the world and simple living, including plain dress. These group include Amish, Old Order, Conservative and Old Colony Mennonites, Old German Baptist Brethren, the Hutterites,[1] and Old Order River Brethren..."

I don't get why this upsets you people. The scarf etc... is, for many, a comfort. So - wear whatever you want. We have 13 year old girls strutting around like cheap whores - THAT makes me uncomfortable!!

You can tell when the woman wears the scarf for comfort - if she gets into the car and sits up front with her husband (or drives), then she is likely wearing the scarf out of comfort. Go nuts then woman! If she gets in the car in the backseat and there is nobody in the front with her husband then you are probably looking at an opressed Islamic woman. I hate seeing that...!

> I don't get why this upsets
> you people.

Because it's on a tight continuum of behavior that obliterates human personality.

Crid - it's a scarf. If a child can go outside looking like a cheap whore, why can't a woman wear a scarf on her head? Personally, as I said, it's the women who are made to sit in the backseat that is the piss off! I could give a crap what they wear - it's not necessarily the "obliteration of human personality"...it's the behavior behind it (I have seen a mother with the scarf and her 20 year old daughter not wear it. Her parents were just fine with her choice).