“Remember those Apple ads that cast the Mac as a 20-something, self-satisfied hipster while the PC was portrayed by an older, square-looking guy in a brown suit?” Brandon Griggs asks for CNN. “Well, those characterizations, unfair as they may be, appear to have some truth to them.”
“An unscientific survey by Hunch, a site that makes recommendations based on detailed user preferences, found that Mac users tend to be younger, more liberal, more fashion-conscious and more likely to live in cities than people who prefer PCs,” Griggs reports. “Of the 388,000 Hunch users who responded to a question about computer loyalty, 52% identified themselves as PC people as opposed to 25% who said they are Mac devotees. Hunch then cross-referenced those responses with answers to other questions to draw cultural distinctions between the rival Mac and PC camps.”
“The results suggest Mac users can be seen, depending on your perspective, as bolder and more creative — or elitist and more pretentious,” Griggs reports. “The report found that 67% of Mac users have a college or advanced degree, as opposed to 54% of PC users.”
Griggs reports, “Mac users also are more likely to describe themselves as computer-savvy and ‘early adopters.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A quick remembrance of the umpteen IT doofuses we worked around/outsmarted in our past lives — as you can likely imagine, wherever there was only Windows PC dreck, we left a trail of Macs and new Mac users in our wakes — confirms at least some portion of these findings to be true.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “DMac” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Are all Apple Mac users gay guys or women? – September 21, 2007
Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 2009
More evidence that Mac users are smarter than Windows users – July 16, 2004
Nielsen/NetRatings: Mac users tend to be better educated and make more money than Windows PC sufferers – July 12, 2002
Oooh, I like the “younger” part. That’s very exciting. My birthday is coming up, and if I use my Mac enough, maybe instead of hitting 60, I’ll slide right back to 20 and get a re-do!
I think what should be derived from these posts are that both conservatives and liberals use well-built machines. Because both aren’t stupid, both understand a good product when it is made, and both like the creative and entrepreneurial do-it-yourself mindset that apple likes to create. This is just another reason why I think the separation that I see spewed all over the media, is unfounded and has little weight when it comes to who we are as human beings and americans (united states). Basically, we are more alike then you think.
This just might well be my all time favorite political post on MDN. Wish we could all get past the group warfare propaganda the media pushes.
What you say is simultaneously both reassuring and scary…
Reverent says, “Hezekiah you believe in that if a man is good, heaven is his last reward?”
Hezekiah says, “I’m good, i’m good, i’m as good as my neighbor.”
“You don’t believe in nothin”, says the white men’s preacher.
“Oh yes i do”, says Hezekiah
“I believe that a man should be beholdin’ to his neighbor
Not for the reward of heaven or the fear of hell’s fire.”
“But you don’t understand”, says the white men’s preacher
“There’s a lot of good ways for a man to be wicked”.
And they hung Hezekiah as high as a pigeon in Bob Dylan’s Hezekiah Jones, a rendition of Black Cross
I’m pretty sure that fits me to a tee (well minus the pretentiousness I hope). It also just about fits the Mac using half of my med school class in LA.
Age groups? Social, political, and religious beliefs? Screw all that.
I think if the comments section of MDN proves anything, it’s that Macs appeal broadly to people who just want their computers to work without hassle.
48yo liberal gay graphic designer originally educated in foreign service, then architecture. Mac user since ’84. Currently have in my trendy downtown historic condo a 2008 Mac Pro, 27″ iMac, a Mac mini connected to my 42″ Sony Bravia, Apple TV 1 and 2, iPhone 4, and soon iPad 2. My new Walter Van Beirendonck jacket is being custom made at this time.
I look like Lemmy,
minus the warts
How it must feel to look like God…
You must take special pride in that 🙂
LOL, Lemmy`s a breed apart.
Do I take special pride in it? Meh, but when I walk into the door of a new client and tell them that I`m the guy they hired as their new security analyst sure do!! By the looks I`ve gotten you`d think that vikings have stormed the building to collect their spoils of war.
As a whole the younger crowd tends to be more liberal. Mainly due to the collective has benefits in survival.
However, as they age they trend less so and from liberal to conservative. Probably due to the fact that the collective tends to be a disadvantage as more resources are directed away from the lifestyle created to that point.
A younger group is expected as the rise of the Mac has really been after Steve returned. Follow this group to the late 40’s and see how it ranks then.
And where do you get your evidence for this?
Not sure how the old political labels apply here. IMHO, a lot of it comes down to what one wants to conserve:
* Effort: Macs are efficient to use and maintain
* Beauty: Imparts happiness, prestige
* Resources: Investment-grade, lower carbon footprint
* Sanity: Fewer bugs, less malware
* American Jobs: designed and sold here + most apps
* Leadership: Who even comes close?
Deep down, many of us share certain values regardless of political affiliation.
Mac users tended to be Bright, Extroverted and Open to New Experience. PC -ers are more likely to be angry, right-wing, uneducated and bigoted. Well, that’s what it was. Now Apple has lost it’s cool. It has evolved in to a control-freak corporation that limits internet use to what it feels we ought to access. “Internet: my way or the highway!” might be the new Apple slogan.
One flaw in the argument: people age, i.e. get older. My first Mac was the second ever model, i.e. the 512K Mac. So, when I was younger, I was everything that you say Mac users are – but people age. Therefore, unless Mac users morph to PC users as they get older, we’ll see a gradual greying of the Mac population, say, in 30-40 years time?
PC users look at only one factor: price. Unfortunately, they miss all the other hidden costs in owning a POS box. I’ve listened to boss complain the time he has spent re-building his home system while claiming Mac’s just aren’t worth the up charge.
At work, I’ve had two Windows box come and go while my same 2004 PowerMac G5 has carried on without a single glitch (now crossing fingers).
The so- call fiscal conservatives have the same mindset. Because they can’t see the hidden cost of poor healthcare and sub-par education, they scream and yell about being over taxed.
Wait until we default on our loans and then maybe they’ll see the true cost of the Bush era tax cuts.
Nice try, but FAIL
Rats. Obviously I need to work on my skills in formenting discontent.
I usually throw chairs around in a spasmodic fashion. Does that make me a Windows hater?
I am 180 on the Mac stereotype. I tend to look like a PC guy but I understand that Mac is the superior products, Imagine the shock of not wearing jeans and a hoodie and arriving at a Mac store in a suit and tie.
58, middle-of-the-road-but-lean-toward-conservative, multiple post-grad degrees, relatively fashion-conscious male. Been a Mac user since 1992 (Mac Classic), now have a 20″ iMac, a 27″ iMac, Mac mini w/ 30″ cinema display, soon-to-be-replaced 15″ PowerBook, Apple tv, iPad, and iPhone 4. I don’t touch anything Windows unless there’s no other choice (in parts of my school).
There for… I’m sMACrt… 😀
My father has been using a Mac since 1992. He is now 92 and is not a 20 something or young person. he keeps thinking young and he works with a Mac Pro, on geology working on photos writing up autobiography he’s having a good time. we have iChat sessions on Saturday mornings.
Thank you
I used my first Apple computer in January of 1979.
I’m pushing 60, ultra conservative, a veteran, clean cut, have advanced degrees and drive a new Call of Duty Jeep Rubicon.
I started out as a psychologist, but now I have been an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician for many years now. I have many Macs, iPhones and iPads.
Not your typical Mac user.
They obviously didn’t survey Marin County, CA—where Macs are extremely popular with older residents (who most definitely don’t wear brown suits!).
I am a 62 year old Mac user since about 93. It was my first computer and I have never owned a PC but used them quite a bit at work. It’s good to know two languages. I am always surprised at what I am conservative on and what I am liberal on. As stated earlier, most people are a little of both. Out on the fringe whether left or right sit the nut cases. I don’t want to be one of them.
We had a Windows 2003 server blow out its power supply this morning. I had its major functions up and running on one of our Xserves in less than 10 minutes. Goodbye, Windows. Two more servers to go.
I just have to get in on the fun. 48, liberal/conservative (figure that one out), married, gun owner, Mac owner since the mid 80’s, Linux user since, well, a very long time. Highly educated with degrees in English Lit. (I know I am, I have the student loan bill every month that tells me so!), Eh, I dress so I don’t go out naked. So, I suppose at the end of it all, I am schizophrenic. 🙂
“Mac users tend to be younger, more liberal, more fashion-conscious and more likely to live in cities than people who prefer PCs,”
Hummm…, I am 55 years old, although I still feel like 18 (parts of me). I am more conservative than Rush, if you looked at my cloths you would offer me money, I live in a small town, and I hate PCs.
i am just a douchebag with a mac and a camera
go figure?
“elitist and more pretentious”
Me in a nutshell…
Not all of us Mac users are Liberal, and since time keeps ticking I won’t be young forever, but I probably will remain a Mac devotee.