Android isn’t cool with teenagers, and that’s a big problem::Nearly 9 in 10 US teenagers use an iPhone, spelling disaster for Google’s mobile future

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 months ago

    Honestly, it’s a way bigger problem that kids are being indoctrinated into “keeping up with the Joneses” as such a young age.

    We’ve officially made children part of the Conspicuous Consumption game and motherfucker, they don’t have money, it’s their parents money!

    It’s sickening and will fuck their finances their whole lives if having the best iPhone is more important than being able to put food on your plate.

    I’m way the fuck more worried about these kids indoctrinated into a Capitalist hell-hole more than I am about fucking Android.

    If our democratic future is banking on these kids saving us, and they’re already rooted firmly up a corporations asshole, we’re fucked.

    • DeadlineX@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Nothing is new here.

      This isn’t that different from when I was a kid twenty years ago. Only instead of phones (though we all had phones back then too, even if they weren’t smart), it was game consoles, or Pokémon cards, or beanie babies or whatever.

      • M500@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        Only difference is about $1000 give or take a few bucks.

        • DeadlineX@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Yeah you’re not wrong about that. Although some people went hard into the beanie babies. And the Pokémon cards actually.

          If you were into warhammer you resigned yourself at a young age to never having money. Those things eat up an ungodly amount of money.

          • M500@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            That’s fair, I’m actually thinking of magic the gathering at the moment. Luckily my friend was given a huge chest of cards like hundreds and hundreds of cards, so we never had to buy any.

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Assuming a new iPhone every 2 years, that’s still pretty on par with historical premiums that would be being paid in the same timeframe for the “in” clothing brands. Designer jeans and Lululemons come to mind.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yeah I don’t know where this guy has been for the last 70 years but consumerism came for kids a long time ago.

        • DeadlineX@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          He’ll, kids shows have been essentially advertising platforms for decades. Shows and movies exist to sell toys and make profits.

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Is this why me and my equally autistic partner are so decent with our money against statistical odds?

      I mean i knew purchases for status where a thing but surely thats just the odd snobbish people right?

      • LWD@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Maybe on the conscious level, but there’s a whole lot going on subconsciously too.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      So, they’re mindless image driven consumers who are going to bankrupt themselves and their parents to the point of starvation AND bring about the end of democracy because… of which phone they use?

  • filister@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    You guys are hating on Android, but the reality is that I will pick Android any day.

    At least with Android I have the freedom to install custom OS versions, change the default browser, sideload apps and to be honest I find Apple’s anti-consumer practices appalling, not to mention their very questionable legacy, etc.

    On my Android I have changed the default browser to Firefox nightly and loaded the libredirect and I am enjoying a lot of sideloaded apps, including Newpipe and it is running beautifully. I personally find Android a lot more powerful and customizable.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You’re absolutely right, but none of the things you’ve mentioned have any importance to a teenager. The only thing that matter to them is fitting in and if all their friends have iPhones then custom OSs and sideloaded apps really aren’t going to matter at all.

      • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        As a teenager I did, but I’m definitely in the minority as a tech enthusiast. I also installed and used Linux at 13…

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You’re a computer enthusiast. Android phones are computers.

      Not everyone needs to be a computer enthusiast. It’s ok that you are though. No shade.

  • eleitl@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Teenagers. US teenagers, specifically. So definitely no big problem.

    Personally for me the problem starts when there is no mobile hardware which supports free/libre OS. It is already visible in the supported hardware list of LineageOS. Large tablets, particularly.

    • Alex@feddit.ro
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      11 months ago

      As a teen, I’m glad I’m European. Nobody has mocked me for using an Android from 2019

      • keesrif@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I’m wondering if it’s tied to how status symbols differ per culture. Its been 20 years, but I don’t remember status symbols mattering much to my environment when I was a teenager in the Netherlands. I wonder how that is now.

  • Nacktmull@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    US teenagers have never been known for being particularly smart …

  • Hillmarsh@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I actually think that Android has gone downhill in a big way, but I still won’t go to Apple’s closed ecosystem, and I don’t care what teenagers think.

    • tomo@reddit.azumanga.gay
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      11 months ago

      ^ this
      until google completely locks down android i think androids still gonna be popular with someone
      i say until because theyre totally gonna find a way to, theyre probably just waiting until they have an opportunity to since google pretty much envies apple above all else

  • CarlosCheddar@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I wonder how this correlates to low use of WhatsApp in the US. In South America and Europe WhatsApp is used heavily and looks the same no matter the platform but none of my US friends have WhatsApp so they rely on iMessage instead. None of them want to be seen sending green bubbles in the chat. I’ve even seen this as a side plot in a teen tv show that my wife was watching.

  • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Can people just stop fucking arguing about android vs iphone, amd vs intel, apple vs samsung etc. I’m so sick of this idiotic mess.

    “this soulless corporation is better than this soulless corporation because their marketing material uses this shade of grey with white text”

    I am going to have a mental breakdown if I read any more of these braindead conversations

    It should be GNULinux vs Windows/Mac, Graphene/LineageOS vs Android/iPhone, etc.

    People arguing corpo1 vs corpo2 have all been brainwashed by the corpos to ignore freedom respecting alternatives, and rather argue a meaningless argument because those 2 corpos are probably owned by the same shareholders anyway.

  • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Google had the game in their hand and then they destroyed Hangouts.

  • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    As much as I dislike Apple I hate Google and their stupid proprietary operating system. I wish actual mobile Linux distributions like Plasma Mobile or Ubuntu Touch were actually usable.

  • gr522x@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    It’s surprising that teenagers are uncomfortable using a surveillance device created by the largest advertising company in the world. Our friends at Alphabet Inc simply want to monitor everything you search for and all your communication because they care and want to keep you safe.