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March 24, 2008

huh

Farhad Manjoo is objective and you are not

Posted Mar. 24, ’08, 5:55 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Apple » Huh?

True Enough One of my new favorite tactics that tech writers use to attract hits and attention is to attack Apple fans. You take a large, diverse group of individuals, group them based upon their preference for a product or company, proceed to lump in together, impugn their opinion, and use their reaction as proof that their opinion isn’t worthwhile to begin with.

There are many tribes in the tech world: TiVo lovers, Blackberry addicts, Palm Treo fanatics, and people who exhibit unhealthy affection for their Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners. But there is no bigger tribe, and none more zealous, than fans of Apple, who are infamous for their sensitivity to slams, real or imagined, against the beloved company.

Should I take the high road and ignore the article? No. I’m not going to go point by point on it either. Let’s do a quicker analysis.

Last year, I praised the iPhone in something of the way Romeo once praised Juliet: The device, I said, is revolutionary — “it marks a new way of life. One day we’ll all have iPhones, or things that aim to do what this first one does, and your life will be better for it.” But because I’d concluded that the phone was, at the time, too expensive to keep (this was before Apple cut the price), several readers alleged that I was an Apple hater. For instance: “Does Salon actually pay you or are you being paid under the table by rival companies?”

Of course. Ironically, a couple bad apples spoils the entire batch. A few people must be indicative of millions. Ayup. He then goes on to compare the Apple fans to those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sure, that seems like it’s on the same scale and an entirely appropriate comparison. Ayup.

Then again, by taking exception to the author’s assertions, I must fall into the last paragraph of the article:

When they come upon that difference — the gulf between what’s in their heads and what’s on the page — the audience tends to assume the worst: The reporter must be licking someone’s balls.

Something is being put in someone’s mouth. I’ll give you a hint. They’re not balls, and we’re not talking about his mouth.


4 Comments

LexM Author Profile Page said:

"One of my new favorite tacts that tech writers use to attract hits and attention is to attack Apple fans."

Greetings, DerikD. 'Tact' is something that you have when addressing a delicate or embarrassing matter (see tact in you Mac's Dictionary). A 'tack', by contrast, is a course of action (see tack, noun, 3rd definition and tack, verb, 2nd definition (figurative) in your Mac's Dictionary). I think you mean tack, not tact.

March 24, 2008 6:51 AM
Paul Lane said:

An alternative to tacks (odd in this usage) is that the writer meant tactICs.

That much having been said, the blog posting is right. It's an easy way to gin up hits (also works in the presidential campaign this year, Obamaniacs or Paulites for example).

BB

March 24, 2008 7:30 AM
GodOfBiscuits Author Profile Page said:

Glad I'm not the only one who finds Manjoo lacking:

The Accidental Irony of Mobs

March 24, 2008 7:57 AM
Dave-O said:

This completely disregards the equally (if not more) obsessive "Apple Haters." If you write anything remotely positive about Apple you get skewered by people with a truly irrational hatred (if anything that word is too weak) of Apple. Just ask this guy.

Thing is, you can't judge one without the other. The two communities feed off each other. They each think they are restoring balance by being completely unbalanced. Apple's enormous success has outraged the haters and emboldened the fanboys, so this isn't going to get better.

March 24, 2008 8:16 AM

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