I don't really understand why I'd broadcast different brands that might align with what I do professionally everywhere I go. Then again, I am not one to like things on Facebook either, might be a similar tendency.
This seems more of a trend in America than it does here in Europe. Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?
And of course childish is bad because we are serious grown up people doing serious things.
At risk of being reductionist, it is kind of hard to understand why anyone would feel compelled to signal their likes and group-identities to strangers in such an overt way. But I'm probably revealing more about my own personality by saying that than I am theirs.
I think the second sentence is more true than you might like to admit. People have been decorating things for as long as there have been modern humans. There is some evidence that even Neanderthals modified their environments for aesthetic reasons [1].
The desire to make things beautiful -- including our own bodies -- is as old as history itself, and even older. If you don't partake in this then I, for one, consider that a bit sad. You're missing out on a huge part of life.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/14/neanderthals-...
[meaning sticker combos should be pseudo unique]
*For more info see here: http://www.savebristolbay.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mine
Well, a lot of users are kind of children. In their teens, 20s, early 30s. So depends on how old are you. Also, are you tie+shirt serious? If you work at some tie+shirt company's IT, you might be more inclined towards a "serious" looking laptop.
>Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?
As if we Europeans don't do it?
I feel strange about the plaster laptops because it seems that people lend their identity from whatever they stick on their laptop which in turn comes from what technology they happen to use. I like Coffee script, Rails, Backbone, etc. but I don't really identify with it any further than my resume.