Are You an Internet Snob?
10th March 2009
The British are a great race of snobs. There’s always someone looking down on someone else whether its because of where they live, what car they drive, which supermarket they shop at or what they do for a living: as a consequence you can bet that we Brits will pigeon-hole you and will form an opinion about you based upon your social and economic status without a by-your-leave which in turn will affect how we treat you as a person.
Now I’m sufficiently travelled to have seen that most societies display similar kinds of behaviour towards each other; the French for instance, have a particular knack at displaying snobbish tendencies to just about everyone and anything that isn’t ‘French’. However I feel we Brits, having conquered half the known world at some-point: have a particular talent for it across the board and can still master the ability to place people into a ‘class’ even in today’s so called class-less society (yeah right!), without a second glance. Still I suppose that’s what makes us what we are and the lack of our former ‘empire’ ain’t gonna stop us now!
This nice little comedy sketch from late 1960’s TV – demonstrates the idea and our ability to laugh at ourselves, quite nicely I think.
The art of snobbery is not just limited to real world communities: the on-line world of the web and the Internet falls under its spell and is no exception. So prompted by Stephen Fry’s recent interview with BBC Radio 4 (to admit that I listen to Radio 4 in the first place, probably displays some sort of snobbish tendencies I’ll wager); I began to ask myself:
Am I an Internet Snob?
In his interview Mr. Fry quips about the social death attributed to having a MySpace account if you’re over 14 and the leper qualities associated with an @aol.com or @hotmail.com email address. I agree with both of these points (awful aren’t I?) but I’m not the only one. I once came a across a UK based web design company who stated on their site’s feedback form that they “would not answer enquiries” from people with “free web mail email accounts”. Whatever the reasons behind this instruction, it can be said it’s blatant snobbery. At least I’m not that bad.
As for the MySpace thing. Yes sure – I’m with Stephen on this, same goes for Bebo and Friends Reunited in my book. But not Facebook I feel (well not yet anyway).
Extending this attitude onto other web related stuff. In the same vein as the MAC/PC hierarchy (you ask a MAC owner what he thinks of PCs), I feel there’s a good case to be had for ‘browser snobbery’ of which I’m guilty of I do admit. We Firefox browser users tend to ‘look down our noses’ at Internet Explorer users. Why is anyone’s guess, as IE is a perfectly good web browser, but I suppose it’s the ‘marginal user’ community thing that is so prelevant amongst MAC users that tends to breed an aloof attitude amongst such people. Incidentally I’m actually a PC user but am aspiring to be a MAC user. It’s the “Apple-Tax” that’s putting me off!
I’ve also come across people who, when declared that I bought my CDs/Books/Games etc from Amazon, responded with a distinct intake of breath as if I’m contributing towards the extinction of the White Rhino personally. “You use Amazon!” I was asked, before being lectured on the virtues of some obscure Internet site alternative that whilst being perceived to be “cooler”, was in fact more expensive than my trusted portal! Huh! How does that work then?
There’s even a snobbery element, especially amongst geeks, about which on-line music player software is THE one to use. Microsoft’s Media Player might as well be contaminated with Ebola (mainly because it’s Microsoft to be honest, which in itself is a snobbish thing) whilst RealPlayer is cool and Apple’s QuickTime is considered to be pure aristocracy.
Hopefully you get the idea and can see how snobbery knows no bounds when it comes to the Internet. Post your own examples – I’d like to hear them.
Oh, by the way; in answer to the question “Am I an Internet Snob?”
Well perhaps a little bit!
