Reading Response- Tiernan Shank

In the 14 years since this essay was published, the status of marketing has changed substantially. Stephenson shows how the design and ideals surrounding a product can shape someone’s opinion. In general, Americans believe in quantity and quality. We want more clothes, cars, and homes; but we want them to have style, appeal, and relevance. It’s the same with computers. Although people could get a lot of cheap computers in 1999 they chose to flaunt the image and spend a little more to get the Microsoft computer rather than the basically free Linux. On a broader sense this shows our class development system. People want to show their material goods but don’t always want to spend the big bucks for the expensive brands like Macintosh. So they settle for windows, a perfect medium for the middleman.

Stephenson is obviously a Microsoft/ PC person. At one point he states that his “personal love affair with apple” ended very rapidly when their software deleted his “big important file” (Stephenson 11). This is an almost hypocritical statement since Stephenson goes on to say that people “dislike [Microsoft] for reasons that are poorly considered, and in the end, self-defeating” (Stephenson 13).  People experience technical difficulties on a daily basis. Tech support is a common feature in all software companies and one of the most successful departments at Apple. To give up on something after one technical mishap is in itself, very self-defeating.

To many people the inner workings of technology are somewhat of a mystery. But we like to know what’s inside, if we can trust it and make sure it’s working to our advantage. Even though Macintosh computers were sealed and sleek, that didn’t necessarily work to their advantage. Stephenson wants to be able to explore what’s inside. It’s almost as if he is locked in the past, trying to reminisce on the days of the teletype in his high school computer programming class and seeing the product right there before him. It’s hard to move past those days when technology moved so much slower and now it seems there’s something new every month.

Microsoft Windows became so popular and well known that they were best know for making their software something that people recognized and wanted to have; a status symbol. In 2013 it’s exactly the same. The same status symbols are there, expect now it’s an illuminated apple in the middle of a screen or a lightweight tablet accessible from just the touch of a finger. We’re no different from 1999 except the roles have switched. Macintosh still sells the hardware and is now the status symbol.  Americans are spending more to get the look and the support that comes along.