Wired: iPad owners are "Selfish Elites"

[barkomatic]

"They are six times more likely to be “wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic 30-50 year olds,”

Ouch! I'm an iPad owner and that hurts--a little. Oh well, I'll just step on some homeless people while playing with my iPad. That always makes me feel better.

What about you? Are you unkind, un-altruistic and selfish you nasty iPad owners?

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/07/ipad-owner-are-selfish-elites-critics-are-independent-geeks-says-study/

 

[TheBritishBloke]

Yes thats SO me... Even though I donate a percentage of my salary to charity every year... And at christmas time give homeless people all the money in my wallet?

That's just an article some idiot has made to get attention.

 

[MythicFrost]

Heh, I'm neither of those things. I'm an iPad owner that cares about others! Wohh!

 

[mrboult]

I actually use my iPad soley as a tool for knocking down poor people that get in my way. Bloody heathens!

 

[pelicanflip]

I'm 21. Guess the troll-article is just trolling.

 

[geekmommy4]

I'll have to pass that article on to my 84-year-old retired father who loves his iPad because it's easy to carry around and less complicated for checking email, surfing the web, playing music, etc. It's his first Apple product. Doesn't exactly fit their profile!

The article probably accurately describes many early adopters of any "relatively" pricey electronics. Silly that anyone would waste their time doing that kind of survey.

 

[Merthyrboy]

I'm a pushover and can never say no to anybody if they ask for help. Don't know if that means I'm unkind.

 

[aimee25]

What a joke.

At 25 (clearly not in the 30-50 bracket), the only one of those things I come close to is the well educated and I only say that because my parents paid a fortune for my degree. I wish I could call myself sophisticated, wealthy and over-achieving but I don't think it's likely to happen in this life time. Especially when today's greatest achievement was glueing my broken skull candy headphones onto a headband so I wouldn't have to buy a new set...total chic.

Seriously this article is just space filler. You can't stereotype a person by devices. Everyone has different reasons for choosing the iPad.

 

[thatisme]

Well, I fit into the demographic.

With that out of the way, what does it make me if I bought the first ipad for someone else, and when I bought mine, I bought it for the purpose of working as a volunteer for our city's youth?

I suppose I should have bought it to knock over homeless people... how selfish of me to not use it to "touch" other people's lives.

 

[niuniu]

You can't stereotype a person by devices.

You can, not 100%, but you can work out demographics

 

[aimee25]

how selfish of me to not use it to "touch" other people's lives.

Lol, that's a good one.

 

[BlackMax]

As someone else pointed out the reason that more well educated and well to do individuals own iPads is probably because of the cost of the iPad. These are the individuals who can afford the iPad without breaking the bank. But how the researchers then jump to the conclusion that they are "self-centered workaholics who value “power and achievement” and tend not to be kind or to help others" is unclear.

Subjective terms such as these have no place in research... They can't be backed up with data points... Unless the researchers hold the belief that EVERYONE who is better educated and well to do are self-centered workaholics who value power and achievement” and tend not to be kind or to help others... Seriously, how else could they have gotten to where they are?

I did like the finding (which CAN be backed up with data points) that "96 percent those most likely to criticize the iPad, on the other hand, don’t even own one". That is just classic human nature. If I don't own one it must not be worth much.

 

[niuniu]

I did like the finding (which CAN be backed up with data points) that "96 percent those most likely to criticize the iPad, on the other hand, don’t even own one". That is just classical human nature. If I don't own one it must not be worth much.

No. Way to try and skew data.

People tend to not buy things they don't want. I criticise Audis because they have FWD, therefore I don't buy Audis. Therefore I don't own one and criticise Audis.

This is true. Your interpretation is your interpretation and you haven't any data to back it up. Just as bad the authors you were criticising.

At least they will have had psychological questions in their questionaires as does any firm these days when you do their online aptitude tests about how they behave or see the world to back up their statements. You have nothing.

 

[wrkactjob]

I don't think I fall into any of those categories much the opposite I let one of those foreign cleaners at my work touch my ipad the other day as a special treat. They seemed very grateful when I made the offer though to be honest I didn't understand them.

But you've got to put a bit back havn't you?

 

[BlackMax]

At least they will have had psychological questions in their questionaires as does any firm these days when you do their online aptitude tests about how they behave or see the world to back up their statements. You have nothing.

You've missed all my humor (did you not notice the smiley face) and in the process you've jumped to your own conclusion... I don't know what questions they've asked or how they came to the results they did unless they release the questions and the answers.

 

[kenmarable]

Wow, this is really funny. When a maker of Facebook surveys gets called a "consumer research firm" and gets an article on Wired, that's definitely some serious science.

Oh, and also check out the dates cited in the Wired article for the survey. How many iPad owners were there before it was even released??

What's next? 76% of Mac users identify with Big Bird according to our "What Sesame Street character are you?" consumer survey. Furthermore, 53% are the color silver, and a shocking 87% are Team Jacob.

That's about as "scientific" as this study is.

 

[kenmarable]

You can, not 100%, but you can work out demographics

Not with a Facebook survey.

 

[notjustjay]

Well, I give thousands of dollars to charity each year, and hundreds of hours of my time volunteering. But hey, feel free to call me selfish. It seems to go with the iPad-hater territory, like the guy on these forums who insulted me a few weeks ago because I said that I liked my iPad so much that I sold my XP netbook.

 

[ajax43]

Wealthy?? Where did that come from? I am all the other things,( well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic 30-50 year old) but certainly not wealthy. At least I don't think so.... whose liver can I stomp out of 'em (in a sophisticated, altruistic way)??

 

[doodude]

So does that make those who dont own an iPad, poor, stupid, lazy & uncouth?
In other words the great unwashed?

Im not sure who the writer is insulting the most. The people that own iPads or those that dont?

 

[Blakjack]

25
95 credit hours(educated but not well educated yet I guess)
Currently not in school
looking for a job
Homeless people make me sad

 

[cjbryce]

“wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic 30-50 year olds,”

You called?

 

[whooleytoo]

When I bought my first mobile phone (15 or so years ago), the general consensus here was that anyone who had one was a posing [insert expletive here].

Today, almost everyone here has one (including children) and many people have two. People will think you're strange if you DON'T own a mobile phone.
Now, anyone who has an iPad is a posing [insert expletive here].

In 10 years time, everyone in Wired magazine will own something akin to an "iPad 5.0", maybe even ridicule those who don't own one. And they'll use them to write articles on how pretentious those posing [insert expletives here] are with their new, swanky "iCars"...

 

[jammybastard]

“wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic 30-50 year olds,”

isn't that the American Dream?
Ok, maybe not well-educated, over-achieving, or sophisticated.

 

[cmvsm]

My iPad dock screen shows a juicy Thanksgiving turkey with all of the trimmings. I flash it out the car window whenever I see one of the street people on the median with the 'I'm Hungry' sign.

Then as they watch me drive away, the 'Elitist on Board' sign is waving back and forth in the back window of my vehicle.