I'd originally intended on writing about wikipedia, Internet memes, or World of Warcraft (the easy way out), but after watching Naomi Klein talk about branding ideas instead of products in No Logo and reading Steven Johnson wax poetic about Macintosh systems in Interface culture for class assignments, I decided to check out the possibility of writing on Mac culture.
As an Internet forum-goer, I'm very well aware of the Mac vs. PC debates and simply hate the attitude that many (not all) Mac users possess. I have no problems with the operating system, but the social associations of the brand anger me.
After a quick ebscohost search, I found an article called The cult of Macintosh by Belk and Tumbat which pretty much summed up everything I believed about the Mac users--that it's practically a religion.
I watched Macheads and Welcome to Macintosh, both very interesting films.
I gathered more information on Mac, Apple, Steve Jobs, and their fans.
As I researched, I gained a great deal of respect for Steve Jobs, a man I used to semi-jokingly call "the anti-Christ." The success of Apple is so dependent on him--he is truly a brilliant scientist and marketer. My distate towards the company has waned, but my distate towards its users has remained the same (even strengthened a bit).