Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists

[ZombieHorde]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-causes-religious-reaction-in-brains-of-fans-say-neuroscientists/

People have often talked about “the cult of Apple”, and if a recent BBC TV documentary is to be believed, there could be something in it.

The program, Secrets of the Superbrands, looks at why technology megabrands such as Apple, Facebook and Twitter have become so popular and such a big part of many people’s lives.

In the first episode, presenter Alex Riley decided to take a look at Apple. He wanted to discover what it is about the company that makes people so emotional. Footage of the opening of the Cupertino company’s Covent Garden store in central London last year showed hordes of Apple devotees lining up outside overnight, while the staff whipped up customers (and themselves) into something of an evangelical frenzy. This religious-like fervor got Riley thinking – he decided to take a closer look at the inside of the head of an Apple fanatic to see what on earth was going on in there.

Riley contacted the editor of World of Apple, Alex Brooks, an Apple worshipper who claims to think about Apple 24 hours a day, which is possibly 23 hours too many for most regular people. A team of neuroscientists studied Brooks’ brain while undergoing an MRI scan, to see how it reacted to images of Apple products and (heaven forbid) non-Apple products.

~snip~

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-causes-religious-reaction-in-brains-of-

[Vashta Nerada]

1. In other news, water is wet.

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. K&R Explaining much. n/t

[Luminous Animal]

5. Explaining much what? I work regularly with PC and Apple computers.

At home I prefer Apple. (Hell, I prefer Apple for work, too but I don't have a choice for that. I am regularly pissed off at the amount of time that I have to cede my PC computer over to tech.)

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. The bizarre fanaticism that so many of Apple's customers regularly demonstrate,

It's over-priced electronic appliances in wrapped in plastic and produced by some of the very worst people on earth at an astonishingly high price in terms of human suffering.

IOW, they're just another evil corporation constantly seeking nothing beyond more.

[Luminous Animal]

8. Like I said. I work on both. Apple... near flawless and I work them to death. PC... regular tech

support and wastes my time which, as an independent contractor, robs me of my leisure time.

So, what computer do you use that is not produced on the backs of human suffering?

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. Demonstrating the point, perfectly.

This is one reason I quit the field, way too many people with no idea what they're talking about making decisions.

Can you describe the difference between the MB in an Apple laptop and a HP laptop? No you can't, because there is none. How about the difference in the CPU? Same thing.

The only advantage Apple has is that they lock you out of the system. As long as you want to do what Apple thinks appropriate, and you want to do it the way Apple allows you to do it, there will be no problem.

We run Apache on our household server and linux on the desk and lap tops (I'm writing this on a seven year old system running Ubuntu 12.04). We just last week loaded Windoze 7 on one system because there are a few new games we want to play and frankly, wine still sucks.

[get the red out]

16. That is me too!

Same here, and I use my iPhone as a tool for many things, but I don't think that qualifies as a religion.

[defacto7]

3. That's what I always thought.

Religion strikes again. I vote for a good old time crucifixion right now.

[Luminous Animal]

4. They studied one brain? Okey-doke.

[FredisDead]

7. Apple Fanboys Are The Worst

From 2007

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/IndustryInfo/story?id=2804821&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Apple Fanatics Are Amusing, Slightly Scary

The biggest reason I try to avoid covering the company is the community of rabid Apple fanatics.

When you are in the mood for it, they can be fun -- in a nasty sort of way. It's sort of like bear-baiting: A dirty, little secret in the computer media is that if you want to goose your readership or spike the traffic to your Web site, just say something negative about Apple Computer.

Suggest that Larry Ellison is a serial killer or that Dell Computers sterilizes children, and you'll get a letter from their corporate PR people politely requesting that you run a correction in the next issue.

Intimate that a new Apple product is less than perfect or that Steve Jobs falls slightly short of being a paragon of humility and virtue, and 1,000 crazies come out of the woodwork, screaming obscenities at you in the blogosphere, calling for the death of your family (I'm exaggerating that one, but only slightly), and demanding that your editor fire you immediately.

[BainsBane]

9. My Samsung Galaxy is way better than my old IPhone

no contest. The only thing is the case is thin, but it came with a protective outer case.

[CrawlingChaos]

10. Even though I have not accepted Steve Jobs as my personal savior

I will readily admit that Windows 8.1 is the handiwork of Satan.

Seriously though, the test subject "claims to think about Apple 24 hours a day"? What the ...?

[DemocraticWing]

12. I just don't consider Apple products.

Apple products usually aren't cheap enough for me to consider, so they're pretty much off the list when I go to buy something. I don't know if they're better, some people say they are, but others say they aren't. If I can't be sure of it, I can't afford to spend more money that I could use on things like rent, the electric bill, and my health insurance.

Now I also hear that Apple treats their workers like dirt, and I don't think I like that too much. I'd rather not give them my money if they're gonna act like that. I worry that the other companies are pretty bad too though. That's why we've got to break the stranglehold of the corporations, so we're not dependent on them to a point where we have to give money to people who do bad things. That way we can all go buy a computer or cell phone and not have to worry about what they do with our money.

Maybe one day, in that kind of future, I'll think about Apple. For now, I think I'll leave them off my list.

[merrily]

13. Odd to call it religious

Does everything anyone thinks about a lot qualify as religious, or just an obsession?

[merrily]

14. P.S. Attempting to use the link got me a 404 message.

(No matter how hard anyone tries to make those 404 messages cute, they just aren't.)

[Union Scribe]

15. The top link works. nt

[FredisDead]

17. Video - Secrets of the Superbrands

[trusty elf]

18. I like apple computers

but don't quite get the religious-like fervor.

[IMG][/IMG]

[lupine25]

19. Funny, I was just thinking about this....

...the other day when I was "evangelized" by a coworker. I have an Acer Android tablet and use a bluetooth keyboard with it, Freedom Pro... a brand of keyboard that I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy because they are terrible (dropped connections, the keys are horribly positioned...I could go on...). But my coworker (I work in IT) saw I was swearing and cursing at the thing and came over to tell me how much better my life would be if I had bought an iPad instead of that Android POS....

...in reply I said, "can you iPad do this???" I then put connected a hardware USB keyboard to it and finished what I was typing.... because my Acer actually has a full USB host port on it. Game, set, match: It wasn't the tablet's fault at all... and to boot I'd love to see him find a hole to stick a USB keyboard on his iPad.