How Apple Gives Our Consumerist Society No Choice and No Space

When I’m in class, if I look up at the lecture hall, the apple logo stares back at me.

I’m sitting in the middle of the Highlander Union Building at the University of California, Riverside. As I’m writing this, I’m looking around the busy quad; students are hurriedly walking to class, some are eating lunch, while other are just hanging out or studying for their next exam.

With our society revolving around technology, all these students have one thing in common: their eyes are glued to a screen.

The funny thing is that the one logo that I keep seeing again, and again- not just right now- but every single day, is a little apple. That one apple that is bitten on the side, the one engraved on the back of phones, and laptops. The one outside almost every store with small letters saying “Apple Pay” You’ve probably seen it, who hasn’t, really? I shouldn’t be surprised, right? I mean after all, Apple Incorporation is one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world.

Since it’s introduction back in 1976, Apple has taken over the world by storm. The reason behind such triumph and prosperity is mostly due to the fact that the company manufactures not only electronics such as MacBooks and iPhones, but they also have introduced us to iPods, iPads, Apple Watch and Apple TV. In addition to that, they also specialize on computer software and online services, such as Apple Music and iTunes. In addition, Apple is always pleasing its costumers by releasing new models and improvements to their products.

Back in April of 2016, when the company first announced a decline in iPhone sales, observers believed that was going to be the end of Apple’s reign in the technology and electronic business. But despite those allegations, Apple has still been able to outshine all its other competitors, and it has become so successful that it ranks as the eighth largest company in the world. To be honest, it doesn’t seem like is going to slow down any time soon.

But how has Apple being able to cultivate such success and popularity?

If you were to ask journalist and political activist, Naomi Klein, she would definitely say it is because of the brand and the lifestyle it sells. In her book, No Logo, she attacks our brand- oriented consumerist society and claims that companies no longer sell their name, but they are selling a lifestyle instead.

If you look at the Apple products, they are everywhere, and there are many to count. It is longer about the iPod and the computer like it used to be back when Apple first started. Now you can choose from iPads, Apple Watch, MacBooks, Apple TV, and like five different types of iPhones.

As soon as there is a new product coming out, consumers immediately go nuts and pre-order it. They even camp out outside their local Apple Store just to be the first ones to own the product, even if they just got a new phone the previous month. If a high school student is going to college they are most likely to buy get a MacBook or an iPad because “everyone has one”. I’m not gonna lie, I am even guilty of this. I am typing this article on a MacBook. The girl on the table in front of me is also typing on hers, as is the boy next to her. When I’m in class, if I look up at the lecture hall, the apple logo stares back at me.

We area at a point where, there no longer is a space in between the consumer, the product and the corporation. People are no longer buying the i products because of the quality, but because we want to be up to date. We want to be on top of the latest trend. But according to Naomi Klein, the only reason we want to be up to date is because we see these products literally everywhere.

That little apple creeps on you everywhere you go.

Advertising is key to the success of every single corporation. It has been the key to Apple’s success.

However, Apple has it easier than other corporations. Apple has advertisements literally everywhere. If I look up from this screen, I can see at least see ten of their products.

Corporations use their own consumers for advertising.

For those who disagree, think about those big celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Drake, U2, Eminem, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, the list goes on. Our society has been trained and taught to follow these big names and do and want what they do and want. So when big celebrities such as the ones previously listed air commercials for Apple, people want to stay up to date, because if T-Swift is subscribed to Apple Music, I should too, no?

People have no choice. Corporations like Apple have taken over our world, and have become part of the Ideological State Apparatus that our society looks up to. There is no space for individualism, especially when people are consuming electronics such as the Apple products. If you look closely, even if the person next you has a different phone case than you, are you really being your self? In reality, you’re not. The media has manufactured your consent to consume these products and adopt the lifestyle that companies like Apple advertise. You and I are just victims of Apple’s many tricks.

We have no space.