Slashdot Mirror
Are Mac Users Smarter than PC Users?
arminw writes "Maybe not smarter, but according to MacNewsWorld they are better at expressing themselves than the average Slashdotter and certainly are better at handling the king's English than the average PC operator." Also, michael is better than CowboyNeal. Mathematical expressions of written style don't lie!
You could probably boil this all down to economics. People who come from families who earn more than $200,000 are typically better educated that kids who come from welfare families. The argument could be made that folks with enough cabbage to purchase a $2k+ Macintosh have greater access to funds that the poor schmo who can only buy some sub $800 PC system which, in my mind, reflects on their access to education. If you can afford a mac - you probably went to a real University instead of DeVry.
-_-
Trying to (admittidly jokingly) determine which group is smarter by their message group posts? And using SLASHDOT posts as a base? Considering 3/4ths of all posts on slashdot are "Yu0 @r3 the SUXORZ F3G!" or "GNAA Ownz U!" (complete with beautiful ASCII art). ...there is an interesting oddity in that ratings for files made up by pasting together stories posted by "Michael" are consistently at least one school year higher than comparable accumulations made from postings (other than press releases) by "Cowboyneal."
In reality, it's a pretty funny article. Good read. Best quote from the article:
Casual Games/Downloads
Wow, even as a Mac user, I find this thread annoying simply for the impending flame war that will inevitably erupt. Don't we have anything more worthwhile we could be discussing than just another lame Mac vs. PC debate?
8==8 Bones 8==8
> instead of +1 and above (which I assume
> that most people read at).
Right on. Judging Slashdot by the -1 comments is a bit like judging a magazine by the articles it rejects.
Actually, even that's not fair, since it's much easier to post GNAA to Slashdot than it is to submit an article to a magazine...
The Army reading list
Don't limit themseleves to just one platform. Each has its uses. Personally, I use linux, win xp, and a Mac from time to time.
I mean, if you don't use them all, how can you really say one is better than the others?
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
How do I mod the article post as Troll or Flamebait?
Moo.
Simply put, Mac users are, for the most part, academics, artsy or literary types who have spent a lot more time in rhetoric and literature classes while slashdotters spent their time in geeky technical (useful) pursuits. Writing style is not the main interest of the /. crew, although some argument could be made that better style can result in better communication.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
At one time, the typical Mac user bought his machine because he was scared of DOS and the rest of the PC world. Today Mac users have other reasons. Many buy into the digital media goodies (FinalCutPro, iDVD, etc). Some like the unix aspect. Some are anti-Microsoft.
Granted there are still "oooh, it looks sexy" Mac users, but those are quickly becoming the exception, not the rule.
BTW: take a look at some of the Mac books at Barnes and Noble or Borders, almost half of them are thick, serious unix books!
This is dumb, and it's come up before.
Yeah, the average mac user probably is smarter than the average pc user. The 4% of mac users are also in the upper 4% of the income scale. Guess what? Well educated smart people tend to have more money than others, your average BMW owner is probably "smarter" than your average kia owner.
Looking at this in any way that's supposed to matter is just elitist. Moving on . . .
The cause here seems pretty obvious. A large proportion of Mac users are communications professionals and creative types. We make our living writing and communicating, while PC users are a more representative sample of the population. The Mac is also a premium product (a slight premium, please, let's not rehash that battle again!) and people who buy it are likely to have more disposable income and education. But ... as an enthusiastic Mac and Unix condescender, I have to admit I'll be adding this to my little toolbox! ~grin~
Mac users can't grasp things as simple as right click and totally wig out when they have to open a command prompt to do something like ipconfig. God help them when their disk drive fills up too. Not as smart.
I dunno about that. The typical Mac users (including and sometimes especially artists) I run across typically read at least one of the thick "Mac Bible" type reference books and love to show off all the little tricks they know. Times have changed since Mac users were just a group of folks too scared of DOS and not quite wealthy enough for a Sun, SGI, or Apollo workstation. Today Mac users have different reasons for using the platform (anti-Microsoft, unix roots, something new/different, strong DV25 media support, etc). Even the casual browsers in the mall Apple Stores seem to posess clue.
It seems to me that more and more of the clueless personal computer users/owners generally just buy whatever they use at work. Generally a Dell or Compaq. (It's funny trying to talk someone out of buying a Compaq--they often argue that they can't buy a Dell as they've never used one before and wouldn't know where to start!)
Feeding the troll
Mac users can't grasp things as simple as right click
Kinda hard to "right click" with a one-button mouse. Anyone who buys a 2-button USB mouse for a Mac can certainly "grasp" right-clicking; I did, and so did every other Mac user I've ever seen with a two-button mouse.
and totally wig out when they have to open a command prompt to do something like ipconfig
On Mac OS X, you don't need to use ipconfig, and that's the point. Use the Network Preference Pane, which is painless.
What you need to realize is that to most people computers are a means to an end, not an end unto itself. As a developer, I'm sometimes happy to tinker around with my work Linux machine, but mostly I just want to get something done and not have to tediously and endlessly tweak RedHat 9.0 to do what I want. I'd rather use Mac OS X and just get things done.
---------The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Shyeah. I'm a Mac user, but this is the tech-world equivalent to 'are light-skinned people smarter than black-skinned people? The story on Fox News at 11'
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
Also, a large percentage of /. comments involve things like TCP/IP, MPAA, *nix, boxen, and other such words that the average word processor doesn't know. It will obviously give us lower scores on spelling and such when it simply doesn't know that they are actually real words.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
:wq!
I mean, come on people! I'm a Mac user and I think this is about the stupidest thing one could spend time on. The author is comparing 2-3% of the computing world with 97-98% of the rest of the computing world. It should have occurred to him that results will vary HIGHLY depending on which portions of the population are used for the sample. The result is that such a comparison is useless, pointless, and elitest.
/. front page. If you need to post something that bad, just post a dupe. We're used to it by now, and who knows, there may be someone who missed the original post!
The sad part is that this made it to the
I mean, those Macs are 50% more expensive than a functionally-equivilant PC...
Funny, the same can be said for someone who buys a pre-built PC with a Windows license included.
They obviously understand the value for their dollar. Everyone else complains that macs are too expensive while cheaping out and getting $600 pcs and still complaining about their own environment. I don't get Windows users (i used to be one for 10 years). Mac users love their computers, LOVE THEM, we know how much. But i dare you to find me 5 people that have the same amount of love for their Windows computers. People complain about it and just keep going back, theres no other industry like it. Its amazing.
I do not know if there is any way that we can "prove" that Mac users are smarter than PC users. But I can say this, it is well known and well documented that the Mac is the choice for many free-thinkers in this world (artists, musicians, scientists, media/dramatists). And the Mac is well marketed for free-thinkers ("Think Different"). The other thing I have seen is that PC users are so reluctant to change by going to another operating system, which is not necessarily a good thing intellectually.
I doubt that Mac users are any smarter than the average computer user. However they may well be more technologically aware than the average user. I say this because most Mac users had to decide to use the mac as opposed to a PC (the market standard). To do this they probably had to assess the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms. People that don't give a damn will usually just buy a PC. Apart from the "it looks cool" crowd of Mac users, most had to know something about both platforms to come to an educated decision as to which to choose.
The author wasn't passing judgement on editors here. He wasn't trying to be funny, either. He was baiting the editors by mentioning their names in the hopes of having his idiotic little story posted on Slashdot. Of course, the eds obliged, and now the front page is full of people commenting about this dumbass's flamebait. There's a moral here, kids: you don't need to be able to perform scientific stats analysis or use approved methods when surveying for intelligence. Likewise, you don't need any sort of real sample size, either. Just throw out a few controversial ideas, don't bother backing it up, and mention Slashdot. You'll be a 15-minute star.
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." -Voltaire
-_-
This article is flawed at best and insulting at worst.
1. The controls on this 'study' are horrid. I'm not sure if the PC Mag forum is moderated or not, but slashdot can be considered unmoderated. If you are not familiar with Macintouch, their reader contributions are not submitted to a web form, but emailed directly to an editor. It would be natural to presume that the editor can then cherry-pick the best and erudite of responses and filter out the off-topic and poorly worded ones as well.
2. In general, Mac users tended to cluster into the scientific, education, and creative communities. Mac using may be self selecting based on the areas of need for their professional foci.
3. Leading from 2, the presumption that a correlation between Mac usage and 'smarts' does not mean a causal one. Just because you must use a Mac does not mean you like to use Macs, nor does Mac usage make you smarter.
That's all I've got to say about this 'study'.
Disclaimer: I use Macs, and I like them. I use PCs, and I like them (for the most part).
Another thing that may have not been considered yet is the high barrier-to-entry that is the price of a decent Macintosh. Buying a $2500+ laptop is no joke, and it's generally reserved for professionals (read: people making big salaries). Professionals with degrees are usually more educated than The Rest of Us, and I'd venture a guess that they read and write just a little better as well.
Then again, it's only speculation. My English skills are hand over fist above every college graduate I've met in person.
The article is about scores from forums used by PC and Mac users, not about users themselves. I use a PC and some unix boxes and don't usually contribute to forums. :)
:)
I think that the typical PC forum user is young and looking for answers to their questions about e-donkey or kazaa, while mac people tend to be older and look for some other things (what? I dunno
While I'm not an English spoker, I've seen some of the best English arount in comp.lang.perl.moderated
Just because something is harder to use doesn't mean the intelligent folks keep away or that the dumb folks gravitate towards it.
The dumb folks are more likely to use whatever is sat in front of them, not having the knowledge or courage to move away from what they know, even though other things could be better.
Intelligents are more likely to try different things, to find the best deal.
im in ur
Allow me to generalize when I say:
Anyone that says that mac users "like to use it for artistic / creative purposes" after claiming to have been "a mac user once" usually turns out to be the guy that didn't know how to use it when working tech support for an ISP, so assumed it must only be used by the creatively insane.
After all, it *does* take some kind of lunatic to use one of these things.
Whether or not Mac users are smarter than PC users is irrelevant. I prefer to think that the computer is only as smart as the user makes it. I happen to know of several incredibly stable Unix (c'mon, a 6yr uptime!!??) and Mac servers and workstations, I can only assume their users are intelligent as well.
I know of not one Windows machine that can claim a six year uptime.
There are some serious goobs pushing the bell curve to the left... Rush Limbaugh, George Bush...
You have a point as far as the "precocious" use of big words goes, but the power of a large vocabulary is that different words have shades of meanings, often with context as a factor. Thus "pulchritude" might be a better word than "beauty" in some situations. "Concatenation" might carry more freight than "chain" in some circumstances.
While the sophmoric use of vocabulary for purposes of showing off is generally obnoxious, there are valid reasons to use language as powerfully as one can.
Yes, effective communication must often take the education level of the audience into account. However, let us not dumb down all language in order to satisfy the lowest common denominator.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Yes, you are absolutely right. I have very similar experience with current Apple HW and OS. But the MacOS 8-9 era was simply horrible, so I also understand why many people are so biased against Macs.
SHE does throw dice.
I beg to differ, although this argument can have no resolution: it all depends on how you define intelligence
Language skills are primarily built through reading and speaking, not writing. If you never read anything other than "Go Dog Go" and "Yo Mama!" is accepted as conversation, you shall never attain a greater skill at language in general.
Without the firm base of language, how can one build the theoretical framework wherein to store the facts and relationships which we would construe as intelligence? Without the framework, persons who achieve a narrow skill in areas such as creating spreadsheets are nothing more than an idiot savant.
Case in point: a software developer who lives in their mother's basement with a Grade 12 education (or worse, a C.Sc. degree). Great skill in memory managment or network protocols may be attained, but any clue as to how to connect these skills to everyday life or commerce is lacking. We used to have a guy with a C.Sc. college degree working here. He could argue all day long about the inefficiency of a solution, but could not communicate with any of our clients in an intelligent manner.
Therefore I define intelligence as more than a narrowly-focused skill. It requires a breadth of knowledge which comes from reading and communicating with others who have differing experiences and viewpoints. These communication skills will manifest themselves in writing ability.
Now, I don't agree with the original article's methodology, but I would agree on principle that if one is a clear communicator and accustomed to such, one would prefer an OS which endeavors to distinguish itself through a superior user experience (i.e. clearer communication to the user).
HBH"Smart is sexy." -- D. Scully ("War of the Coprophages")
BTW, the my "three times" figure come from personal experience. I added up the cost of my home built system.
And what value did you place on your time?
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
It's also true that a significant portion of the wealthiest people in the country did not graduate from a university.
A good idea and determination will win over pure smarts any day. If you're less intelligent you can easily hire smart people to run the business. If you're not creative you can't easily hire people to give you ideas to start a company with.
The wealthiest people in the U.S. are those who own(ed) their own business. You don't get filthy rich punching a time clock and collecting a paycheck from your employer every other week.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
With all the programmers out there, one might find writing the 'first' mac OS X virus a challenge or a feather in their cap - yet there aren't any to be found. If a virus writer wants recognition, what better way than to attack the 'virus free' mac?
I guess I will stay with my 'yuppie artsy know it all userbase' and enjoy not having to purchase a firewall, virus software, and all the other crap that is necessary to run Windows with an internet connection.
They are not inviting you to think differently. They are inviting you to ponder the concept of being different. Hence, "think different." It might not be pure grammar, but it's outstanding ad copy.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.