edX
mac shaman
in the year that i have hung out around here i have come to notice the distinctions between computer users and geeks. the surprising thing about this is that up until i visited here, i've never met a mac geek before. power users, yes, true geeks, no. and the reason is because macs have traditionally been the computer for idiots. having been a mac user for almost 20 years, you must understand i say this lovingly and without malice. mac owners have always been computer users. they own macs because they're easy to use, easy to fix and almost impossible to break. they get work done, they provide some play time and then they move on with their lives. go outside and hike, play some ball, watch a movie, go to the bar and try to score, read a book. anything but think about their computer some more.
for computer users, the mac sits on its desk or a table or wherever is the most convient place to access it when you need or want to. for geeks, whole rooms have to be dedicated to enshrine the objects of their true passions. computer users buy a computer that works like they expect it to and take it home, set it up, and use it. they don't think about things like updates and shareware and such until someone else tells them to - either thru a product announcement, requirements for the latest software they bought or the tech support guy who says it will fix the problem they've been having. geeks thrive on having the latest of everything before it is released, even if that means risking screwing up everything they already have working.
computer users call somebody to fix their computer and eventually learn to take care of the common problems themselves. they don't spend days reading specs and comparing caches. they occassionalloy cuss at their computers, but mostly because it looks silly to be cussing at yourself. geeks call somebody else as a last resort. only after they've changed every component they can reach and reformatted a dozen times. or at least checked with other geeks at the forums and chat rooms. geeks know every name of every part of every computer off the tops of their heads. they know the codenames and compatibilities and what cards fit in which slots and, well they know more about that kind of stuff than i even know enough about to guess what it is. i get the feeling sometime that they would get excited to find out the shoe size of the person who did the final inspection of their cpu chip.
i'm sure this list could go on and on, but what's the point. you know which you are by now. you probably knew before you opened this thread. but i didn't know till i found this site. my position here has always been - "mac user". i know what i know from experience that includes many trials and tribulations. but using a mac is practiaclly second nature to me. or was before os x. it took me a while to learn the new approach - the new attitude if you will. and it is this new attitude that has attracted all the geeks to macs. all the 'nixers and switchers and self proclaimed computer experts. these new mac geeks speak a different language than me. they see the computer in very different ways than i do. still, i have benefitted immensely from their help. and i think a few of them have benefitted from mine since despite all the nix, it's still a mac thing.
but at some points in some discussions i have to step back and realize that i am taking to geeks, not computer using freaks like myself. we see the world from different points of view that aren't going to be changed by a forum discussion. probably not even from face to face encounters unless they were my clients in therapy and then i might be able to lead them to new sources of their own light, but that's a different thing. and the thing i find so frustrating about geeks, is their disdain for computer users. people who just want things to work are beneath them. people who don't care about the biggest and fastest cpu chip are ignorant in their eyes. of course, these ultra geeks are not real big on social skills anyway, so being concerned about others isn't high on their list. what matters is being right about computer stuff. (yes, 'stuff' is one of the more modern technical terms i do know.)
at any rate, my question is this, how do the mac faithful communicate with the new macgeeks, or igeeks? At what point do we get them to understand that macs are what we made them thru years of buying the product and loving what we bought? it was never about mhz, ghz, cache size, etc. it was about a computer that did what you wanted it to, didn't break down every month and simple enough a grown man could fix it.
where is this going, i'm not real sure. i just know that while i tend to like mac users, i'm not so sure that some of our new osx fans are "mac users'. they're snobby geeks who are just thrilled to finally have some eye candy to go with their terminal commands. and once they got that, all they can do is whine about all they gave up to get it. for some reason or another i don't feel very sorry for them. to quote an old hippie saying, "you're either on the bus or off the bus". there is no standing at the door of the bus and telling the driver how to drive. if you don't like the trip, go back to your pc. w
i'm sorry if i've offended anybody. but sometimes i feel real offended by the way some people here treat my views on real world computer use vs. their super tech knowledge. those of you have felt like i was an online friend can rest assured this is not aimed at you - no matter how geeeky you are
. your social skills and reasoning powers have been shown to be fine. for the rest of you, computer users and geeks alike, maybe think about how we can make this forum and our discussions a little more inclusive of both sides, without having to belittle each other.
i'm sure i've said some things here that will be misinterpretted. i'm sure i've said things here that don't say enough. i'm sure i've messed up what i really wanted to communicate in the first place, but at least i started. this has been a long time building up for me and tonite i had the time and the inspiration to start it. maybe i'll have the time to continue it later. maybe you'll take the time to add your perceptions of mac users vs. igeeks. maybe not.
theed - remember my old habit of always ending a post with a song lyric?
"does anybody really know what time it is,
does anybody really care?"
for computer users, the mac sits on its desk or a table or wherever is the most convient place to access it when you need or want to. for geeks, whole rooms have to be dedicated to enshrine the objects of their true passions. computer users buy a computer that works like they expect it to and take it home, set it up, and use it. they don't think about things like updates and shareware and such until someone else tells them to - either thru a product announcement, requirements for the latest software they bought or the tech support guy who says it will fix the problem they've been having. geeks thrive on having the latest of everything before it is released, even if that means risking screwing up everything they already have working.
computer users call somebody to fix their computer and eventually learn to take care of the common problems themselves. they don't spend days reading specs and comparing caches. they occassionalloy cuss at their computers, but mostly because it looks silly to be cussing at yourself. geeks call somebody else as a last resort. only after they've changed every component they can reach and reformatted a dozen times. or at least checked with other geeks at the forums and chat rooms. geeks know every name of every part of every computer off the tops of their heads. they know the codenames and compatibilities and what cards fit in which slots and, well they know more about that kind of stuff than i even know enough about to guess what it is. i get the feeling sometime that they would get excited to find out the shoe size of the person who did the final inspection of their cpu chip.
i'm sure this list could go on and on, but what's the point. you know which you are by now. you probably knew before you opened this thread. but i didn't know till i found this site. my position here has always been - "mac user". i know what i know from experience that includes many trials and tribulations. but using a mac is practiaclly second nature to me. or was before os x. it took me a while to learn the new approach - the new attitude if you will. and it is this new attitude that has attracted all the geeks to macs. all the 'nixers and switchers and self proclaimed computer experts. these new mac geeks speak a different language than me. they see the computer in very different ways than i do. still, i have benefitted immensely from their help. and i think a few of them have benefitted from mine since despite all the nix, it's still a mac thing.
but at some points in some discussions i have to step back and realize that i am taking to geeks, not computer using freaks like myself. we see the world from different points of view that aren't going to be changed by a forum discussion. probably not even from face to face encounters unless they were my clients in therapy and then i might be able to lead them to new sources of their own light, but that's a different thing. and the thing i find so frustrating about geeks, is their disdain for computer users. people who just want things to work are beneath them. people who don't care about the biggest and fastest cpu chip are ignorant in their eyes. of course, these ultra geeks are not real big on social skills anyway, so being concerned about others isn't high on their list. what matters is being right about computer stuff. (yes, 'stuff' is one of the more modern technical terms i do know.)
at any rate, my question is this, how do the mac faithful communicate with the new macgeeks, or igeeks? At what point do we get them to understand that macs are what we made them thru years of buying the product and loving what we bought? it was never about mhz, ghz, cache size, etc. it was about a computer that did what you wanted it to, didn't break down every month and simple enough a grown man could fix it.
where is this going, i'm not real sure. i just know that while i tend to like mac users, i'm not so sure that some of our new osx fans are "mac users'. they're snobby geeks who are just thrilled to finally have some eye candy to go with their terminal commands. and once they got that, all they can do is whine about all they gave up to get it. for some reason or another i don't feel very sorry for them. to quote an old hippie saying, "you're either on the bus or off the bus". there is no standing at the door of the bus and telling the driver how to drive. if you don't like the trip, go back to your pc. w
i'm sorry if i've offended anybody. but sometimes i feel real offended by the way some people here treat my views on real world computer use vs. their super tech knowledge. those of you have felt like i was an online friend can rest assured this is not aimed at you - no matter how geeeky you are
. your social skills and reasoning powers have been shown to be fine. for the rest of you, computer users and geeks alike, maybe think about how we can make this forum and our discussions a little more inclusive of both sides, without having to belittle each other.i'm sure i've said some things here that will be misinterpretted. i'm sure i've said things here that don't say enough. i'm sure i've messed up what i really wanted to communicate in the first place, but at least i started. this has been a long time building up for me and tonite i had the time and the inspiration to start it. maybe i'll have the time to continue it later. maybe you'll take the time to add your perceptions of mac users vs. igeeks. maybe not.
theed - remember my old habit of always ending a post with a song lyric?
"does anybody really know what time it is,
does anybody really care?"
