Edit: Jesus Christ, people. If you buy a $150 Thinkpad made by slave labor instead of a $1,200 MacBook made by slave labor, you're still supporting a capitalist economy based on slave labor. We all do. We have no choice. The number of smug liberals in the comments saying "well I buy a cheap used laptop" or "well I buy coffee beans and make my own coffee" are completely missing the fucking point.
Don't tell yourself your consumption is moral. All of us make unethical choices every day because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Accept your shame and guilt and let it drive you to do better.
Oh, I didn't know you needed apple products, the most monopolistic tech company to exist, to survive. That explains why their fans are so rabbid. I better switch from Linux otherwise I'll die.
It's not all that uncommon for workplaces to require a specific OS
That's a good point
"we live in a society".
People are pressured to align with social norms, so the word "survival" in this case is used very expansively. It means not only to continue to exist, but to continue to exist in the social strata you have managed to achieve. ANY such strata comes with standards of quality, and pressures to make choices that align with the group. There are always outliers who cross strata and reject certain things, but that does not mean all of us don't abide in certain cases.
So no, you don't need a Mac, but you may receive pressure from your social group, and may value conformity as a part of your "social survival"
Maybe she prefers the Apple ecosystem and her social group pressured her to add the stickers
Or, she got the mac second hand and does indeed oppose capitalism. Wouldn’t explain the starbucks tho…
Now you're cookin
While I accept your argument, you're either a juvenile, or an extremely weak willed person to buy a particular brand because your "friends" pressured you to be more like them.
What a rude and uncivil comment.
I'm not discussing "friends" I'm discussing nearly every element of public adult life.
You are not free from social pressures the same way no one is immune from propaganda.
I was not referring to you personally. I was generalizing. My comment was not rude. You simply perceived it as rude.
I would ask you to speak for yourself. You do not speak for all of society. Perhaps one isn't free from potentially being the recipient of attempted social pressure, but one is certainly free to ignore it. I've been doing it for most of my adult life. I do what I feel is logical. Not what others would have me do.
You're missing the point. There's so many pressures you don't even perceive. Your whole perception of what's appropriate is not free from influence.
This is an entirely subjective argument. I'll accept this as your opinion, and perhaps your personal experience, and leave it at that.
This is a heavily studied topic in mental health, various humanities disciplines, career coaching, etc. I'm not inventing this concept.
Who said anything about friends? Young people are often pressured to buy a particular tech product by their school.
Monopolistic means there are no other options. That's the definition of monopoly. She needs apple products because they're a monopoly. The refutal is in the words you used.