CheeseburgerBlue's Journal: The Marginality Myth

Challenging the Marginality Myth

I use a Macintosh. If I'm to pony out the standard statistics as oft-quoted, I am to believe that I share this trait with about 4 - 6 % of computer users. As I understand it, the figure represents Apple's "market share" -- though how this number is arrived at (does it deal only with new systems sold, or does it take into account existing legacy systems?), or how accurate the tally even is (who exactly do they ask?), is a complete mystery to me, my understanding of economics being what it is (nil).

However: It doesn't *feel* as if I'm part of such a marginalised group. Granted, since I work in the field of animation and graphics, it is natural that I should meet many people professionally who use Macintoshes. But beyond that, it seems to me that there is no scarcity of Macintosh users to be encountered socially. At any random gathering of more than five or six people, there is always somebody who is connected to the Macintosh world (if only in the form of "my girlfriend has an iBook").
In my experience, even a group of people dedicated to the use of their Wintel PC in the workplace will still be punctuated by the handful of people who prefer to use a Macintosh at home. It doesn't seem to matter whether they're working in high finance, textbook editing or just e-mailing Cousin Sally -- there are always those few who go the Apple way.

But how few? If I'm running into these people just about every time I'm in a mixed gathering, that must mean that I am some sort of supernatural vortex that draws a specific 5 % of the population into my life, like iron-filings to a magnet. Empirically, Macintosh uses seem to be a distinct minority, but a far cry from being marginal.

Is my perspective skewed because I live in a (relatively) cosmopolitan megalopolis? Perhaps I rub against individuals who think differently more often than say, a farmer. This theory is unlikely: over the past few years I have visited with dozens of rural family members, friends and business contacts, and the Macintosh seems as present as it does anywhere else, if not more so (say, 1 of 5 people, at a broad guess).

(Is my perspective skewed because, in my business, I tend to encounter people who are fairly well-to-do? Maybe it is. When I think about it, Macs do seem to become less frequent as we move down the economic ladder.)

Walking my dog last night I glanced up at the north face of my apartment building and easily spotted six personal computers that could be discerned through the windows. Two of them were mine (easy to spot on account of the PowerBook's glowing Apple logo standing out like a small beacon in my otherwise darkened office), one of them was clearly an indigo iMac with two kids sitting in front of it, one of them was a graphite G4 tower sitting unattended, and two of them were anonymous grey or beige boxes.
I know it's just an anecdote. It doesn't prove a darned thing. I'm sure there are plenty of computers in my building that aren't against windows, or against north-facing windows. But it's not a bad analogy for how I've been feeling lately: if Macs are so obscure, why do I see them so often? If Mac users are so rare, why do I meet so many?

One theory: a greater proportion of Wintel PCs are actually dust-covered paperweights (i.e., not used often if ever). It is possible that, in the general population, Mac useres tend to actively use their computers more often MS-Windows users (users with Wintel boxes running *nix are a different matter altogether, of course).

Another theory: the big big numbers are dramatically skewed by mass purchasing for business computing. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that if there were a way to survey home computer use, including new and legacy systems (that get *used* that is), Mac users would turn out to be closer to a quarter of the user base. It has been said that Mac users are "disproportionally" represented on the Internet (not by any means the majority, but with a presence far greater than 5 %). Maybe that is the a more useful number for gauging which platform people are really using.

Anyway, I'm tired of being treated as the user of a marginal platform, when instead I seem to be a part of a healthy, lively minority. I deny my platform's obscurity. I denouce the platformist ways of those who offer Windows-only software (like my bank). Fuck 'em. I'm fighting back for Mac.