Why might I equate Mac computers with designer jeans? Mac people have told me. Just within the last year of living in my new town, I have had five roommates, a friend, a professor, and over a dozen classmates who are always willing to point out the superiority of a Mac over a PC. Last week, the friend and my roommate were discussing something Mac related, while I stood there wondering how to re-enter the conversation. I finally made some crack about my computer and the duct tape holding its screen together, but the hour was late and my wit decided to go to bed early that night, so my comment probably made no sense. As is often the case, I later thought of what to say to defend my PC. This is what I would say if given the opportunity again.
Three (of many) reasons that a PC is better than a Mac:
1. Lowered Expectations with a PC: The other day, my roommate was trying to hook her Mac up to our television, and somehow her screen went blank and she couldn't get it to work again. She didn't know what to do, this had never happened before. My other roommate rushed to her aid, since she has been using Macs all her life and should know what to do. They both became worried, as they had never seen anything like this before. I, on the other hand, was amused. You poor Mac people, I thought, you have put so much trust in your computers that you don't know what to do if something goes wrong. I, on the other hand, am able to be calm when something goes wrong. Because something goes wrong with my PC on a daily basis. When MY computer screen goes blank and everything disappears, its nothing new. I have no expectation of greatness, and therefore no disappointment when the computer does not live up to its potential.
2. Forced Relaxation: Today I had a few precious minutes to work on a flyer for a student club, and was using Publisher on a computer in a lab. Nearing the end of the project, I opened my email account to download an image to put into the flyer. In my attempt to download the simple image, somehow Picture Viewer froze. Which caused Publisher to freeze. Mozilla Firefox of course felt left out, so it decided to freeze as well. Some might refer to this as an inconvenience, or evidence of the evils of PCs, etc. I, however, saw this as a friendly reminder from my computer that I need to slow down take life in stride. The computer was being considerate, you see. I had the chance to read a few pages in my book as I waited for it to come back online, which might not have happened without the computer crash. Also, because the crash happened quite literally the moment before I was about to hit the "save" button, I was given the opportunity to start over on my flyer. Maybe the computer was trying to tell me that my first draft wasn't good enough. Finally, who needs to be on time to class? I'm the TA for the class the computer crash caused me to be late for, so dramatic late entrances are supposed to happen.
3. Technology should reflect reality: Life is disappointing. Relationships fail, economies crash, pets die, jobs fall through, health deteriorates. Why should I expect anything less from my computer? My PC knows it would throw me for a loop if something in my life actually worked out as planned. So it breaks, shuts down without warning, or decides to take 15 minutes to start up just to remind me to stay in reality and be prepared for disappointment.
So, the next time my friends have a discussion about how aesthetically pleasing their Macs are, or how reliable their Macs are, I will be prepared with the following response: "Yes, all that might be true, but can your computer do this:
"I thought not."
And it is for these reasons, my friends, that I will stick with my Shopko jeans and my IBM Thinkpad. That is until I have buying power again. At which time, buying a Mac is on the list right under "Buy a car that does not have a direct connection with the devil." But that is for a different post.
