“Early computer advertisements rarely showed the user. The experience of using a computer was portrayed as a disembodied one, the mind of the user fusing with the computer to accomplish tasks,” Brett T. Robinson writes for Wired.
“In Apple’s 2002 ‘Window’ ad, however, the active presence of a user suggests the integration of the self, the body, and the machine — a rhetorical move signifying computer and user as an integrated unit,” Robinson writes. “The metaphor suggests that computers are not to be viewed as outside threats, but as intimate and integrated extensions of our own human faculties.”
Robinson writes, “In the ad, a man is looking at himself just as much as he is looking at the impish machine. This recalls the Greek Narcissus myth where the young man is transfixed by his own reflection in the pool of water but does not recognize the reflection as himself.”
Further fuckery here.
MacDailyNews Take: While we do love summer so, twaddle like this makes us pine for autumn and the real Apple news it promises to deliver.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “CognativeDisonance” for the heads up.]
WTF?!?!?
AAPL & it’s Omnipotence. i’ve known this since 1978. I’m SO Grateful.
Oh…. I’m sorry…. I’m a Mac guru ever since I’ve known when…. IM GREAT!!! 4 Fck SAKE!
People who buy Apple products are fed up of all the crap that other companies make.
People who buy Apple products are those who buy things that work.
I had no thought of becoming a narcissist when I switched from Windows to a Mac which was based off my experience with an iPhone 4. I thought if the iPhone can offer such a fantastic user experience, surely the Mac will be able too. It – the switching process – wasn’t motivated by thoughts of becoming a hipster. If anything it freed me from becoming Prisoner #214239332 in Windows-land. The Mac turned me into a prisoner of Windows who was condemned to sit in death row to a free man.
Brilliantly articulated, and an admirable testament to the power of Apple’s idea that technology should enhance the quality of life, not infringe on it
So it took him 11 years to come up with this insight?
Well, yeah. He is twelve, after all.
I luv me. I luv me a lot.
Sent from my iPhone, which I deserve.
The only narcissist I see her is Robinson the guy in the add is not looking at his own reflection but is playing with mimicry the same way one would play with a small child or a dog.
Such rubbish.I became a happy Apple user because of the quality, simplicity, fabulous customer service and beautifully designed products. Guess what “Erida” the Greek Godess thinks of the author and Windows machines?
Wired really publishes any linkbait garbage these days..
Sad, as I remember when they were actually good and I admired them as much as I admire Apple.
I even saved part of my allowance to buy the magazine (at highly inflated international price).
I wouldn’t even click on one of their ads these days.
What a load of pretentious bollocks. Only a complete narcissist could spout this, someone who’s far too smug and impressed with himself.
Trying to imply that someone looking at a machine or device imagines that it’s their image, and they become the device or machine is stretching things so far that it’s going to snap back and hit him in the face.
I have been called worse.
narcissists or clued in.
As I have said before, most pundits are so narcissistic so as to thing what they write is interesting to someone besides themselves. They live for clicks.
Ooops. Typo. Thing should be think.
In the same way buying a BMW or Mercedes is?
When did anyone say that buying a BMW is narcissistic? (we just bought one 🙂 )
I can see your point about Mercedes, however.
Tripe, Apple is communicating that the computer should not be a simple tool that imparts little to zero of any emotion or worth to the user. Instead, it should be something that makes one comfortable, engaged, and refreshing to accomplish those mundane task. Apple’s synergy of products attempts to blend both human and machine into the best of both with little of the negative. Too bad this writer has not evolved enough to see.
Obviously a slow “news” day if this idiot has nothing better to write about than an 11-year-old ad…
People buys more than one Apple devices because their experience on their first is great.
People are willing to pay premium as long as what they are getting in return is great.
Like what Apple said, the iPod(touch to be exact) is the vehicle for people to get to the iPhone then the domino effect starts from there.
iPods are the best in their field. People think it is great that’s why they buy another Apple product.
I started out with iPod touch for 2 generations then finally got iPhone 4S, Apple TV, Mac mini, iPod mini(the watch), and finally iphone 5. I will continue to buy Apple products as long as they continue to build the best in the industry.
Some people buys apple stuff just to look cool. “Hey look I have iphone!”
I’d never owned a Windows machine but at work I used IBM PCs running DOS and I just accepted it as it was and I good at using it. However, I worked in the McGraw Hill Building and their bookstore sold all sorts of computer, but once I got my hands on a mouse on a 128K Mac, I was hooked. The GUI was just amazing compared to a DOS computer.
Narcissism never came into play, I was hooked on the applications that used a mouse. At the time I had a subscription to Byte Magazine and after reading Mac articles and playing with the Mac, I just had to have one and that was the first computer I ever owned. So it’s been non-stop Macs since 1984. I’ve spent a ton of cash on Macs and peripherals but I’ve made it all back and way more in the last few years by owning Apple stock. No regrets, at all, with either Macs or Apple stock.
As a Byte subscriber, you would have turned first to Jerry Pournelle’s column. I know I did.
All humans are narcissists. It’s the nature of the human mind. My apologies to the few who recognize the illusion.
Well I’d f**k me. Does that make me a narcissist?
“People who buy Apple products are narcissists or something..”
Well, at least we are not idiots buying cheap plastic imitations.
At the risk of getting flamed, this guy actually has a point. What I took from the article was that the Mac, because of its inherent elegance, is much more a reflection of a user’s wants and needs and thus is more able to integrate seamlessly into the daily lives of its users than the average Windows clunker.
I don’t believe he was using “narcissist” in a pejorative fashion. On of the closing paragraphs illustrates this particular view:
“In the Mac narrative, differences in operating systems represent differences in cognition styles. Associating with a particular brand, then, is more than an affiliation to a name or corporate philosophy; it’s an affiliation to a way of thinking. The operating system is a metaphor for the mind.”
To my way of thinking, my Mac is an extension of my daily life and most times using it, I really don’t “see” the computer. Ergo, it’s a metaphor for my mind. If that’s narcissistic, so be it.
=:~)
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN IT’S ALWAYS THE SAME!!
What does it say about the author when he reads his shitty article over and over again…
Plus we don’t have to masturbate twice a day in the dark basement like Android Fanbois. We get women easily having iOS/Mac on our side! Hehe
Is that Adrian in the video?
Mr. Brett Robinson can kiss my narcissists-or-something A##!!!!