By Pat Bataillon
Those “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” commercials are beginning to drive me a little crazy. I use a Mac, and I once used a PC. Personally, I like the Mac better. That doesn’t make me a better person than a PC user, though.
These commercials pair a skinny, unshaven, twentysomething hipster with a little fuller, older nerd with thinning hair. The hipsters is wearing a gray T-shirt and jeans to let us know that he is an easygoing guy. The nerd is wearing suit and glasses. You get the idea. Mac users are cool; PC users are nerds. We’ve heard it before. Now, the Macsters wants to make sure we don’t forget it.
I know that makes me cool because I use a Mac. But I hope that doesn’t mean this column is only for cool Mac users. That’s not what I’m about. I’m about keeping the peace in a world overflowing with computer-based discrimination. Oh, it’s out there and I’ll prove it to you right now in this next paragraph.
If you are at Starbucks reading this on your Mac and you already checked the computers around you for PCs, you are guilty of Macrimination. Macrimination should not be tolerated. If you are that guy or gal with a PC at the Starbucks and just checked for a Mac in the room, smile politely at the Mac user and be proud of your operating system. Also, don’t be afraid to talk to each other. Maybe you two can resolve your differences and become friends. That is what we’re all here for anyway, making buddies!
So PC users stand up and be proud of your computer, and Mac users the same! We can overcome this latest attempt of advertisers telling us what is so hip. As these commercials begin to brainwash us into Macrimination as an acceptable form of bigotry, let us listen to my high school English teacher, Mr. Witt, who told his class everyday that “Variety is the spice of life.”
Posted on August 10, 2006