Discrimination isn’t hard to come by in this world. We have all likely been discriminated against in some form or another at some point in our lives - I know I have. But the latest way people find ways to discriminate against one another is kind of a weird one for me even to this day, and that’s because people are finding ways to discriminate against other people simply due to the mobile platform they use.
For some people, it’s that big of a deal.
Now, I’m not talking about making simple jests directed towards the platform itself here and there - I’m talking about actually talking down a person and completely berating them simply because they used Android, iOS, Windows, or BlackBerry. Some people go beyond criticizing the actual platform and go straight for the kill - insulting the user instead.
This is something I see happen online more often than I see it in real life, but even in real life I have seen some pretty nasty exchanges occur in real life between two people using two rival mobile platforms. Many times these exchanges will boil down to insulting the intelligence of the other person.
"iOS users are dumb because their OS isn’t as complicated as Android."
"Android users are dumb because their OS isn’t considered secure."
"Windows Phone users are dumb because they don’t have any apps."
"BlackBerry users are dumb because BlackBerry isn’t relevant anymore."
I have my reservations on how I feel about certain platforms, sure, but I can’t understand where people come from when it comes to getting truly, deeply offended about another person using a different platform. Exactly how badly is it affecting you when you find out that somebody else is using Windows Phone? And do you really think that calling somebody names will convince them that you (and your platform) are superior to them? I’m going to have to say that’s a negative, ghost rider.
Some people don’t need a complex ecosystem.
Android isn’t the mobile version of the boogie man.
Windows Phone is good for more than just apps, and not everybody needs tons of apps.
BlackBerry is very relevant, particularly to business users.
Oh yeah, and flip phones are still cool, too, because not everybody needs the features of a smartphone.
I bring this up because I just browsed some smartphone-related forums over the past couple of days, and several threads, which started out very calm and collected, ended up turning into some total hatefest by the last page. I can’t say I’ve never seen this type of odd discrimination going on, of course, especially when there are Internet trolls involved, but it’s just appalling to me how people actually turned this into a thing. This is a thing! People hate other people simply because they use a different platform than they do!
I guess I just kind of find it odd how often I run into the “Us vs. Them” mentality when it comes to something as simple as a mobile operating system. There’s a difference between being a loyal consumer to a company whose phones you may love and being a total jackwagon - maybe that’s where people are getting confused. Confusing loyalty with being total trolls. Or perhaps it’s merely a case of displaced anger rather than true hatred for somebody using a different operating system, but some people just take this non-issue of an issue entirely too far.
Can’t we all just be buddies? Ya know, put all of this behind us, join forces for the greater good, hakuna matata, and all of that good stuff?