Can someone explain this part? It's not something I can relate to at all. Maybe because I'm not from the US?
This too. The author just has the drama on everything turned up to a thousand percent. It’s incredibly irritating and made me stop reading.
That statement is simply false even in the US.
We all know very well that buying something isn't the difference between why our peers will or won't engage with us. However devaluing others into superficial strawman is an accessible coping mechanism for social rejection.
When children say something like this, it's because they're not aware they're being bullied and buying the <thing> isn't going to fix it. When an adult says it, it's a bit more concerning - it shows that they perhaps have certain unaddressed social anxieties, or are avoiding dealing with their antisocial behaviours that are leading to their social rejection.
Maybe it’s not fair but I find a Framework running Linux gives a good first impression.
In tech circles, you would probably make a pretty big impression, if you pulled out an old laptop running MS-DOS (and still did an impressive demo).
The "one of us" mentality has shifted to other things over the years, but some industries still live on the image.
I don't think there is much more too it. "If I didn't buy Apple it would hurt my career". Obviously, completely absurd but how else can you grow a company to be worth 3.3 trillion selling tech gadgets at a massive premium.
It is easy to convince oneself too that this marketing is factual reality after spending so much money too. I mean that new iphone wasn't an expense, it was a career investment!