Apple Causes Religious Reaction In Brains of Fans 636
satuon writes "In a recently screened BBC documentary called 'Secrets of the Superbrands', UK neuroscientists found that the brains of Apple fans are stimulated by images of Apple products in the same areas as those triggered by religious imagery in a person of faith. According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."
I'd like them to compare programmers' brains (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
If you walked in the store, you passed the test.
Re:I'd like them to compare programmers' brains (Score:1, Insightful)
Let's not try to deflect the import of this by searching desperately for other things that have a religulous (look it up, fanbois) reaction.
Furthermore, your reach is unseemly. There is no C vs Perl debate. Vi vs emacs has strong technical bases. As opposed to Mac-heads who largely do not understand computing - kinda like how fundamentally religious people don't understand nature.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm an atheist but... (Score:5, Insightful)
As an atheist myself (and a relatively "strong" one at that - I consider the concept of religion to be toxic), I wouldn't be surprised to see the same reaction in rabid Linux users, or rabid Windows users (although admittedly they're a lot harder to find). The article and summary are heavily focused on Apple, but the core content of the article (and yes, summary) states that it's more about it being a brand that people do build up a "religious" feeling towards.
As an Apple user (typing this on a MacBook Pro) AND as a Linux user, AND as a Windows user for work, I really am quite certain I wouldn't have these kinds of reactions in my brain to seeing Apple logos. i.e. I am not an "Apple devotee" as the article puts it. I do however suspect you'd see these reactions in my brain for the things I am truly passionate about (sometimes irrationally) such as showing me a Dvorak layout keyboard; a linguistic tree; or the flag of my home country. Note that I don't consider myself "excessively" devoted to any of these things, but I can imagine it would trigger something (these things all do trigger an emotional response for example).
Re:Apple Stores (Score:3, Insightful)
It's also amusing how much of a religion opposing Apple seems to be. I have to wonder if the grand irony is lost on you haters.
Re:I'd like them to compare programmers' brains (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
Also notice how cathedral-like those Apple stores are -- glass to harness the ethereal, wooden altars to exalt the immaculate, and "genius" acolytes to guide you on the path to salvation (from PC original sin).
Re:Apple Stores (Score:3, Insightful)
It is easy to see the fault in others, but a more difficult proposition when looking in the mirror.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also amusing how much of a religion opposing Apple seems to be. I have to wonder if the grand irony is lost on you haters.
...kind of how Atheism is as much of a religion as religion itself?
Re:Apple Stores (Score:4, Insightful)
Damn, this is turning out to be exactly like dealing with christians as an atheist:
Them:
"Your lack of belief in a god is a religion"
Me:
"Defining a lack of a belief in something as a religion is broken"
When are people who are a part of the faithful herd (regardless of the faithful herd) going to accept that not being a member of your religion is not a leap of faith?
(Answer: never)
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
Anti-groups are obsessed with what they hate (Score:1, Insightful)
Why is it that atheists on the internet spend so much more time talking about god on the internet than people of faith and why do they spend so much time complaining about christians while they are trolling against christians themselves? Why is it that windows fanboys spend more time talking about Apple products and why do they spend so much time trolling Apple users with alleged stories about arrogant mac users?
The answer is simple, both of these anti-groups have members who have some gnawing feeling inside them that they are missing something and they try to cover it up by attacking what they fear is what they secretly want.
I don't know about you but I'm a little sick and tired of all of the anonymous "buttsecks" trolls on here. It seems to me that these PC using trolls seem obsessed with it. Do you see mac users talking incessantly about it? No, because mac users come from all walks of life and most of them are grown up people living on their own instead of little trolls living in their mother's basements obsessed with anal rape and apple users. Grow up already for crying out loud. I'm neither gay or a supporter of rights other than "human" rights for all but we should treat all people with respect regardless of how we feel about their way of life or political views.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
Atheism is a "religion" as much as religions are religions
The (obvious) problem with this is that there are about 100 atheists in the world who actually give a shit enough about atheism or religion to proselytize it, compared to millions of god-lovers who won't just leave the rest of us alone.
Re:I'm an atheist but... (Score:3, Insightful)
As an atheist myself (and a relatively "strong" one at that - I consider the concept of religion to be toxic), I wouldn't be surprised to see the same reaction in rabid Linux users, or rabid Windows users (although admittedly they're a lot harder to find). The article and summary are heavily focused on Apple, but the core content of the article (and yes, summary) states that it's more about it being a brand that people do build up a "religious" feeling towards.
I agree, I would think that Linux or Windows devotees would generate the same scans too.
As an Apple user (typing this on a MacBook Pro) AND as a Linux user, AND as a Windows user for work, I really am quite certain I wouldn't have these kinds of reactions in my brain to seeing Apple logos. i.e. I am not an "Apple devotee" as the article puts it. I do however suspect you'd see these reactions in my brain for the things I am truly passionate about (sometimes irrationally) such as showing me a Dvorak layout keyboard; a linguistic tree; or the flag of my home country. Note that I don't consider myself "excessively" devoted to any of these things, but I can imagine it would trigger something (these things all do trigger an emotional response for example).
I'm definitely an Apple fan (not a fanboy) since I switched in 2006. I weighed my options for a laptop when I went back to school to finish my undergrad degree, and chose the MacBook Pro. I also went from a "candybar" regular cell phone to the original iPhone, and have sold each old iPhone and upgraded to new ones as given the cost to upgrade, was worth it to me. I also bought my iPad (great supplemental and travel device) but given the cost and features, I didn't upgrade. I also don't own any other Apple products as I have found other offerings (routers, NAS, etc) to be superior. Nothing wrong with liking Apple and their products I say, as long as you make the rational decision behind owning the product.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:3, Insightful)
How so? Atheism is hardly a religion, it's simply the term for anybody that doesn't believe in God or really any paranormal phenomenon.
Calling atheism a religion is simply a method of subjugating those that choose not to buy into all that religious stuff.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:2, Insightful)
Have you considered that perhaps there's a reason for that? Apple gets bashed for doing some pretty nasty things. And the bashing gets even more savage as a result of the fanboyism that's common. There's plenty of Apple fanbois who can't accept that the iPod was simply the next step in portable music player technology, and that the coveted menu interface was ripped off from Creative. Pretty much the only thing about the iPod that was actually innovative was the wheel and white coloring, all the rest of it had been done before by somebody else.
Likewise with iOS, I don't see many people claiming that the iOS itself sucks, all the complaining I see is about how Apple takes all the control from the owners and tells people what they may and may not install on their devices, unless the owners jailbreak their device and void the warrant in the process.
Re:I'd like them to compare programmers' brains (Score:4, Insightful)
It's weird that anybody gives a shit about vi vs emacs--it's obvious that unless you use an exclusive feature, they're essentially the same, modal vs modeless is nothing more than a preference, and given their complexity, the most important thing about either is how familiar you are with it. I guess people just like to believe that what they're already doing is the best thing. And hey, who wouldn't like for that to be true? Maybe the difference is skipping the step where you find out if what you want to believe is true.
Tabs vs spaces, on the other hand, well, there's no question. Heretics who indent with spaces should be burned at the stake.
Re:Apple fanboys are as irrational as religious fo (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple fanboys are as irrational as religious folks. Who woulda thunk?
No, they are not. At least they believe in something that actually exists unlike the billions of nutjobs who believe in an imaginary deity.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really though. Saying something does exist is not the same as saying something doesn't exist. If I said there are no such thing as purple monkeys who drive cars, the lack of evidence suggesting their existence would satisfy most people, especially as the claim is significantly outrageous. However, if I said there WERE purple monkeys who drive cars, people would become far more skeptical.
Lack of evidence that something exists IS a type of evidence that it doesn't exist. It's not full proof, of course, but if it's the only evidence one can go by, it's better to regard it than disregard it and claim the opposite. If that wasn't true, then all kinds of claims could be made including my purple monkey statement and it'd be just as reasonable to say "well, you can't prove it DOESN'T exist, so you're a fool for denying my claim that it does".
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
What I see is that many geeks reduce Apple's efforts down to "simply" this or that. "Apple is all about marketing." In your analysis of the iPod, you've reduced the important contributions to "simply" the color and the wheel. I think many here on Slashdot still don't accept or understand is that Apple does not design their products for us; the target market is general consumers. Thus in your analysis you've ignored the features of the iPod that made it successful for general consumers.
With the iPod, focused more on usability than technical specs that geeks love. For example it was small and could hold a great deal of music. Before the iPod you had to choose between the two with competitors. Apple also shifted the mindset from a file-based system to a media based one. For geeks, they don't see a difference. For an average consumer who considers their desktop as their filesystem, removing the minutiae of having to deal with files increases usability.
None of these things were ground breaking from a geek's perspective. To an average consumer, it was magical. While geeks dismiss them as "inevitable" the question is why did virtually none of Apple's competitors do it first?
Re:Apple Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
Atheism isn't a religion, but it is a leap of faith nevertheless. You are basically saying, without any proof, that god doesn't exist at the same time as a preacher is saying, without any proof, that god does exist, and neither of you have really defined who or what God is.
So yeah, keep pretending you're different from theists...
Not even the same ballpark in leaps of "faith".
- One prediction has a long standing history of being proven wrong on all the small details so why would I believe the biggest lie of all.
- The other prediction is a logical extension of everything I've learned up until now regarding how the physical universe works.
Re:Apple Stores (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Apple Stores (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh? Who is the head of atheism? What dietary restrictions do we have? Special days of the week? Buildings we meet in? Perhaps you can name any facts we're conveniently ignoring because we simply want to believe what we believe?