GenZ Android owners are bullied for not having an iPhone, but refuse to switch

https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-android-users-teased-peers-iphones-2023-2

by heavyset_go • 3 years ago

36 38 3 years ago

y2hhcmxlcw• 3 years ago

Does this "criticism" or bullying or what not related to Androids exist among other age groups such as millennials? Or is it predominantly Gen Z?

tekla• 3 years ago

Millennial here.

Yep, it happens. I just don't care. If a friend wont speak to you because you have the wrong phone, shitty friend.

Zetobal• 3 years ago

Never happened.

KyeRussell• 3 years ago

Think, anyone young enough to be a trend-seeking kid when smartphones were around. So yes, this includes some millennials. iOS well and truly won the “culture war”.

It’s just kids being kids.

But I’m sure I won’t have to hold my breath long to see this shovelware ragebait article catch HN readers hook, line, and sinker. I can already see the paragraph-long comment about how Apple’s continued dominance represents the downfall of society. When in reality we may as well be talking about Team Edward vs Team Jacob, or Team Rue vs Team Jules, or whatever.

972811• 3 years ago

yes, millennial here, it exists but is 99% tongue in cheek humor

Centigonal• 3 years ago

This feels similar to how I felt in school when everyone was getting the iPod, and I had a Sandisk Sansa. :)

aksss• 3 years ago

Yep, there was a lot to like about my CompactFlash MP3 player back in the day - solid state, ran on one AA battery (lithium for snowboarding in winter), backlit white on blue LCD, physical momentary switch for navigation on the side (no touch screen). Scarcely bigger than a zippo lighter. I was honestly more excited about that thing than I ever was about a walkman or discman, maybe because I was old enough to have actually used a walkman and discman. The iPod was awesome, but at same time first gen was a mechanical drive and the whole iTunes thing seemed a step backwards to someone using MediaMonkey to manage a large MP3 library.

heavyset_go• 3 years ago

Haha same, except I rocked a iRiver H340 with Rockbox.

hammyhavoc• 3 years ago

The difference is that it didn't stop you from interacting with them though. This kind of discrimination is akin to not even owning a cellphone if you are excluded. An iPod isn't a social life.

super256• 3 years ago

A bit OT, but I fell in love with Japanese android flip phones this week. Look at this wonderful Kyocera: https://imgur.com/a/qiZUHkm // https://www.gsmchoice.com/en/catalogue/kyocera/dignoky42c/ga...

If such flip phones had decent hardware (being able to run a messenger and Spotify without lag) I would unironically switch from my iPhone. I miss typing with T9 :)

betaby• 3 years ago

US thing I suppose? Even wording is weird to me 'Gen Z accounts for 34 percent of iPhone users and just 10 percent of Samsung users, according to data reported by Financial Times.' Does that really mean 34% Iphone and 66% Android?

toast0• 3 years ago

They're saying of iPhone users (in wherever?), 34% are GenZ; and of Samsung (phone?) users, 10% are GenZ. Without knowing the overall counts of iPhone/Samsung users, the number of GenZ iPhone and GenZ Samsung is also unknown and you can't make any comparison inferences.

You can say that iPhone users are roughly three times as likely to be GenZ than Samsung users, I suppose.

olabyne• 3 years ago

yeah it is a US issue. In Europe group chats are on Whatsap

realusername• 3 years ago

Yes, I'm in western europe and imessage is pretty much dead. Part of it is a lack of interropability with Android, part of it is that it's marketed as an SMS app and SMS being dead doesn't help.

gumby• 3 years ago

Seems like they probably went out of their way to make the "bully" case. Plenty of people in the US use android (I happen not to be one of them, but I know many of my friends are).

This feels like the "repression" being claimed by certain political and religious groups, only less consequential.

jgalt2122• 3 years ago

I live in a upper middle class US town, and I have yet to see a teen using anything other than an iPhone.

hungryforcodes• 3 years ago

As was mentioned above, this seems to be mostly a US problem. In other countries it's much more balanced towards Androids.

jgalt2122• 3 years ago

Yes, I was indicating that what I have seen was in line with article's assertions.

wkat4242• 3 years ago

That's really just a US phenomenon.. Here in Spain most teens carry Androids. And most people overall in fact.

matthew288452• 3 years ago

From personal experience this is mostly due to iMessage chats. Imagine for example that all of your friends have iPhones except one or two. From your perspective, they're the reason you can't have an iMessage chat with all the fancy features. Sure, you could use another messaging app, but why couldn't they just buy the phone that always works?

This perspective doesn't make sense to me, but it's how a majority of people think.

orbisvicis• 3 years ago

Not having an iphone is a good way to get out of conversations with people you don't want to converse with.

matthew288452• 3 years ago

Case in point, anyone who loses a date by not having an iPhone is dodging a bullet.

rektide• 3 years ago

RCS will let anyone react with an emoji[1], which is like 95% of what people want/need/use. But ironically, the non-standard proprietary iPhone users all think everyone else is the problem, even though them & their phone is the non-partcipatory jank holding us back.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23475819/google-messages...

zinekeller2• 3 years ago

Sadly, Google have co-opted to run RCS (https://jibe.google.com/) and most people have now serious doubts if Google will ruin messaging again like how they ruined Hangouts. In all of this time, Apple maintained iMessage with not much fanfare so I am not surprised that most people just shrugged Google's campaign: everyone is tired of Google's irrationality.

Also the US carriers are only "supporting" RCS because they have no choice in the manner - Google pushed it hard. Imagine if Google have pulled the plug, would the carriers still maintain it?

ThePowerOfFuet• 3 years ago

Sure, you could use another messaging app, but why couldn't they just buy the phone that always works?

They _used_ to always work, but Apple's software quality has been declining over the years.

hulitu• 3 years ago

Sure, you could use another messaging app, but why couldn't they just buy the phone that always works?

Your definition of "works" is strange. Apple is not able to display a menu name when you use a bigger font.

throwaway128128• 3 years ago

I was bulled in the mid 90's for having a Mac.

daviddever23box• 3 years ago

I wouldn't trust a drug dealer with an Android phone.

beAbU• 3 years ago

Services like WhatsApp and Telegram have all but erased this phenomenom in the rest of the world.

My friends and I have been WhatsApping up a storm even before the first iPhone became available in my country. This was pre-android, believe it or not, WhatsApp used to host JARs you could download for your Symbian dumb phone. Before WhatsApp we used a service called MxIT.

For me and most of my peers, non-SMS mobile chat dates back as far as early 2000s. For all my teenage and adult life, I've never once sent or received an SMS in a social context. My SMS inbox is 100٪ banking transaction alerts, OTPs and spam.

TheLoafOfBread• 3 years ago

Oh yes, I remember ICQ, Qip and Trillian. SMS were expensive like hell and used only during emergency.

noisycarlos• 3 years ago

Once I texted a Tinder date from my Pixel and she goes... "Oh, you're a green bubble". I've never felt discriminated by the color of my skin, just by the color of my text bubble!

GenZ Android owners are bullied for not having an iPhone, but refuse to switch

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