I have friends who swear by a particular brand of computer or who won’t consider crossing over to another online search engine. They stick to their preferences with an almost religious fervor.
Although I’ve never seen it degenerate into physical altercations I have seen people raise their voices at each other over such differences of opinion. Just more proof that people don’t need any reason to feud.
I think humans like to have some level of conformity. Part of the human paradox I suppose. I know we say all the right things about individuality and ‘doing your own thing’ but we like to know that everyone else is doing the same thing and whatever their neighbor owns is similar to what we own.
It’ funny. Once upon a time one of the techno giants that we all know, and some of us love, once talked about setting people free and letting them do their own thing. Yet they’re one of the driving forces behind standardization. They were once the scrappy non-conformists brimming over with idealism and ‘new’ ideas. Now they’re ‘the man’.
I suppose I have my likes and dislikes in computers, programs, websites and so forth. But I don’t fully close my eyes to the realities of life and to the benefits that might be found in trying another way.
Back in college I used Macs to write up my reports and I did all my work on Macs. Why? Cause that’s what they had. When I left school my first computer was an HP PC desktop. Why? Cause it was cheap, had a giant library of software titles.
I live on Microsoft Outlook at work. I could not do my job without it nor without other Microsoft products such as Word and PowerPoint. But then I also use Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop as well. Mozilla Firefox is my browser and AVG is my anti-virus program.
I use a Dell desktop, a Lenovo Laptop and a Samsung tablet and phone. But for printing I turn to an HP printer and I have a Western Digital hard drive to back up my work.
Why? Well, because all of these work and they work well in their own functions. Today they do the work just fine for me and I’m satisfied with the results but maybe tomorrow someone else will come up with something better and I will probably switch.
Diversity means that these companies can work on what they do best and turn out a better product for the customers. Diversity also means competition and that drives each company to constantly try to top one another.
Don’t be satisfied with just one answer. Keep your mind open to all possibilities.
Recent Comments