Posts tagged Android

Everyone has heard the old saying “No one likes a show-off.” I however completely disagree with that. Different people are attracted to different things. Some people are attracted to wealth and power. To draw the attention of this crowd, people show-off their wealth and power with a brand new Ferrari. Others are attracted to athletic and competitive individuals. In order draw their attention, people will show-off their talents in sporting and competition events. While others are attracted to those who live a simplistic hippie life style. This can be shown-off by driving a hybrid and eating granola. The point is that showing-off is necessary for human advancement and procreation. If no one felt the need to impress others, we would still be in the dark ages. (You can’t tell me the Wright brothers didn’t have fame on their minds when they started building their first plane.)

With that said there is a line between jackassness and showing-off. Taking your Ferrari on an African Safari through starving villages would be a jackass thing to do. So would completely skunking a  team of crippled kids at basketball. In fact, both these ideas are flat out stupid. Your assets are so unevenly matched with the “competitions” that it voids any real comparison. Also on top of that your audience is wrong. Very few if anyone would be impressed with your accomplishments. Those who are impressed with nice cars or athletic ability are not anywhere near either one of these activities.

This brings me to the unnecessary public show-off Fanboy. We have all seen these Fanboys. They are the ones that bring their MacBook Air’s to the bar or bring their Amazon Kindle DX to a Barnes & Noble to sit and read. (You can’t read any Barnes & Noble books on the Kindle.) The ultimate unnecessary public show-off Fanboy is the person who brings their personal iPad to work to replace their company purchased laptop.

I completely agree that taking your laptop, e-reader, or tablet to a coffee shop or library is completely acceptable. Coffee shops and libraries are designed to improve the experience of using these devices. I will even go as far as bringing your new gadgets to work for 1 day to show your work friends also does not make you a Fanboy. I think you should be proud but not too proud of your new gadgets. If you don’t have some pride in what you bought it means you just wasted your money.

Let’s get back to the Unnecessary Public Show-Off Fanboy. Why is someone who unnecessarily publicly shows-off their gadgets defined as a Fanboy? The answer to that is because people who publicly show-off their gadgets in an unnecessary way are doing it for one of two ways. First, they want people to notice that they are one of the 20 million unique users who own that particular gadget. They want to make the point that their gadget is so awesome it even works in the competitions lair. If they are really lucky, someone will strike up a conversation with them and maybe even get into a long debate about who’s gadget is better. One of the best ways to do this is like the example the Kindle in a non-Amazon bookstore. (Which to my knowledge is any bookstore.) The second reason they are doing this for is because they are so completely in awe of their device that they believe everyone everywhere needs to be in the same state of awareness of their gadget. The best way to accomplish this is through subtle but forceful showings of the device to a population of people who are not used to seeing such a beautiful and sleek looking gadget. Such as bringing a high end laptop to the bar where everyone will ogle over it. Both reasons are classic Fanboy ideals. Fanboys know that their gadget is in every way better than the competition and everyone needs to know the truth about it so that they too will realize that they need to go out and buy one for themselves.

Not only are these points Fanboyish but both of these points also cross the line into stupid and jackassness. What point is there to make about the competition by bringing your gadget into a place where your device’s weakness are enhanced and your experience enhancement is absolutely zero?  Unless you have the Barnes & Noble Nook you should not be reading any e-reader in any Barnes & Noble bookstore. Do you read better at Barnes & Noble? Does the in-store Starbucks sell better coffee than the 6 other starbucks that are within a 2 min walking distance? No! You just look like an idiot! As far as the Fanboy’s Macbook Air that is taking up bar space next to me, I care about it as much as the crippled child who just got his ass handed to him cares about someone’s basketball skills.

I understand that this post comes across as attacking Fanboys but understand that is not my intentions. There is nothing wrong with being a Fanboy. In fact our economy relies on them. I am just telling you to not be a Fanboy who is also a jackass and an idiot.