(Image courtesy of The Economist)
It’s widely known that Apple fans have an often cultish devotion to their favorite tech company, despite widely known chinks in their armor such as the lack of Adobe Flash playback or a smartphone who’s weakest point is actually keeping a phone call connected -- could religion play a part in that devotion?
FoxNews is reporting that several academics are now calling Apple “the new religion,” claiming that devotion to Cupertino is not a matter of rationality but “a matter of faith.” At least that is the result of a research paper published this month by two professors at Texas A&M University, whose authors propose that the only way to understand the “slavish devotion and over-the-top financial success” of Apple and the iPhone is to understand “its minimalist, white-walled stores as the new churches of the tech generation.”
"The religious-like behavior and language surrounding Apple devotion/fandom is an example of 'implicit religion,'" Professor Heidi Campbell, one of the authors of the study, told FoxNews.com. “Implicit religion” occurs when technology becomes a substitute for belief and behaviors once attached to religion or religious practice, she explains.
Apparently, that means it doesn’t really come down to simply making good products and marketing them well. Despite Apple’s recent “Antennagate” and “death grip” problems on the iPhone, “fans still believe when the leader of the Church of Apple, Steve Jobs, blames consumers for the poor reception of the company’s cell phone (clearly, users are holding their phones incorrectly. In fact, they flock to buy the device despite its serious design flaws.”
The research report also cites some pretty far-out comparisons to the Bible in Apple’s history, comparing the legendary story of Apple’s humble beginnings in a garage to the birth of baby Jesus in a “humble manger” or how Apple CEO Steve Jobs was controversially fired but “rose again to save the company,” or even citing that Apple has always had an “evil archenemy” they compare to the Devil -- first in Microsoft, and today in Google.
As FoxNews points out, there are some great tax breaks in applying for religious status under the First Amendment -- maybe Apple should look into it.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
7ja
November 29, 2010 at 10:45pm
Great article. One tip that is usually skipped and I find extremely useful is downloading Picasa Albums. I dislike the Picasa application and find iPhoto to be much cleaner with a nicer user interface. Most people think that one needs to have the Picasa applications to be able to download whole albums from links, but one can subscribe to picasa albums very much the same as RSS subscriptions.
7ja.net
MikeLawson
August 03, 2010 at 9:20am
What an absurd concept. Apple users are not "the faithful" they are for the most part very satisfied consumers who appreciate the design, stability, interface and ease-of-use that make Apple products so easy an 80 year old grandmother can start using them without making a hundred calls to her grandchildren for help. The only people calling Mac users zealots are PC-users jealous of what we're willing to pay for to enjoy using a system and products that make us happy enough to share our happiness with others looking to stop dealing with the hassles of using Windows. My mother got an iMac 17" three years ago. Since then, her need for support calls from me went from about once a week to about three times a year. No more spamming spyware installed on her, no virus problems, and a GUI that just makes it easier to navigate. No complicated installation processes or uninstalling processes, no problems with setting up printers or other devices, she just plugs things in and most of the time they just work without additional software to install. Its been so easy for her she wonders if she did actually install something and ponders why its working because she didn't have to do all the stuff that used to confuse the heck out of her under XP.
Bottom line, the whole "Cult of Mac" thing is meant to get readers, and meant as a pejorative by snide non-Mac users, ironically who become "converts" to use their term, after a period of putting down the systems, once they realize how much better OS X is over anything from Microsoft. The real stick thrown through their spokes was the move to Intel processors, making the Mac now able to run any OS out there, simultaneously using virtualization, or via Bootcamp, making the Mac machines the most versatile machine and best value for the money. If I want to boot Windows 7 and run a Windows-only game or program, I can do it. If I need to boot Windows because some online site like Quicken Online only works with that horrid Internet Explorer, I can do it. And when I'm done monkeying around on that side, I boot back to the system that works best for me, and laugh at the naysayers.
I too was once a Apple-hater, prior to OS X. I think I had good reason to be one then, but after OS X, and especially after OS X on Intel processors, the whole hating Apple bit no longer holds.
Samuraiartguy
July 29, 2010 at 3:07pm
Well. They may be on to something...
Considering the fact that one of the leading Wired-spawned Apple tech blogs is called "Cult of Mac." And some of us do display something rather resembling zealotry defending the platform and the company. We certainly seem to offend the living p**p out of the Windows, Linux, Android crowd. They call us the Mac or Apple "faithful" and Apple used to have official Apple "Evangelists" as an actual Corporate Title.
And of course, One Infinite Loop can be wrapped up tighter than the Vatican. And Apple of course does very little to discourage either worship ... or obedience. I'm being kind of flip of course, but still the glassy expressions and blown-out eyes of the guys in the "revolutionary and magical" iPad promo videos had that "we drank the kool-aid" look.
That actually WAS kind of disturbing.
seano1
July 29, 2010 at 12:46pm
The actual abstract of the paper seems to say that it's more about the use of language then actual religious behaviors.
"Our analysis of the ‘Jesus phone’ clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions."
CPTKILLER
July 29, 2010 at 10:21am
This paper by these two Academic Idiots at A&M disgusts me. I went to Texas A&M and this demonstrates what happens when publish or perish goes beyond capability to rationally develop useful work. The two jack$$es remind me of the dummies who used to lecture late Tuesday afternoon to hear their own voices! This article is a double insult to Apple Computer and to my religious beliefs. These two idiots need to become trotline bait in the Brazos River.
Ricc
July 29, 2010 at 8:38am
Sure... its a religion. You dont get it do you?
The tech stuff tends to turn people into geeks where they become more concerned about managing its workability...instead of the tech actually enhancing their lives. Look at the gamers slavishly headacheing on the latest graphics cards and ingame settings just to be able to play something thats actually not that great...think how you feel after a fragging session. These are geeks with no lives. Better have a facebook session finding out about whatevers great going on around, partys... girls...ball game at the park with your fav mates...or plan that excuisite trip and book that superb hotel for the coming vacation...if you got kids...more fun stuff to do, things you will never forget...ever...even after you grow old... This world IS beautiful. The tech is there to help you see it. Apple products try to give that..
drkenfp
July 29, 2010 at 7:55am
1. Academics are very good at finding reasons to denigrate and belittle matters of faith. To me, it just highlights their self-centered world view and pettiness. It would be fine with me if they got over it.
2. As a man who is, at this moment, using a MacBook Pro to write this while his wife is dying of cancer 10 feet from him, I can say with some authority: my loyalty to Mac products is NOTHING like my faith in Christ. My faith is orders of magnitude higher than my brand loyalty. Only someone who experiences faith would get that. "He who has ears, let him hear."
Back off the soapbox now. God Bless.
--Ken Franklin
