Android isn’t cool with teenagers, and that’s a big problem::Nearly 9 in 10 US teenagers use an iPhone, spelling disaster for Google’s mobile future

101 points
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Honestly, it’s a way bigger problem that kids are being indoctrinated into “keeping up with the Joneses” as such a young age.

We’ve officially made children part of the Conspicuous Consumption game and motherfucker, they don’t have money, it’s their parents money!

It’s sickening and will fuck their finances their whole lives if having the best iPhone is more important than being able to put food on your plate.

I’m way the fuck more worried about these kids indoctrinated into a Capitalist hell-hole more than I am about fucking Android.

If our democratic future is banking on these kids saving us, and they’re already rooted firmly up a corporations asshole, we’re fucked.

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34 points

Nothing is new here.

This isn’t that different from when I was a kid twenty years ago. Only instead of phones (though we all had phones back then too, even if they weren’t smart), it was game consoles, or Pokémon cards, or beanie babies or whatever.

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24 points

Only difference is about $1000 give or take a few bucks.

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10 points

Yeah you’re not wrong about that. Although some people went hard into the beanie babies. And the Pokémon cards actually.

If you were into warhammer you resigned yourself at a young age to never having money. Those things eat up an ungodly amount of money.

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4 points

Assuming a new iPhone every 2 years, that’s still pretty on par with historical premiums that would be being paid in the same timeframe for the “in” clothing brands. Designer jeans and Lululemons come to mind.

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1 point

Accounting for inflation? Maybe not much of a difference when talking about game consoles…

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12 points

Yeah I don’t know where this guy has been for the last 70 years but consumerism came for kids a long time ago.

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2 points
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Hell, kids shows have been essentially advertising platforms for decades. Shows and movies exist to sell toys and make profits.

Ninja edit: correct auto correct

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6 points

Is this why me and my equally autistic partner are so decent with our money against statistical odds?

I mean i knew purchases for status where a thing but surely thats just the odd snobbish people right?

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2 points
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Deleted by creator
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1 point

So, they’re mindless image driven consumers who are going to bankrupt themselves and their parents to the point of starvation AND bring about the end of democracy because… of which phone they use?

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62 points
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You guys are hating on Android, but the reality is that I will pick Android any day.

At least with Android I have the freedom to install custom OS versions, change the default browser, sideload apps and to be honest I find Apple’s anti-consumer practices appalling, not to mention their very questionable legacy, etc.

On my Android I have changed the default browser to Firefox nightly and loaded the libredirect and I am enjoying a lot of sideloaded apps, including Newpipe and it is running beautifully. I personally find Android a lot more powerful and customizable.

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14 points

You’re absolutely right, but none of the things you’ve mentioned have any importance to a teenager. The only thing that matter to them is fitting in and if all their friends have iPhones then custom OSs and sideloaded apps really aren’t going to matter at all.

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1 point

As a teenager I did, but I’m definitely in the minority as a tech enthusiast. I also installed and used Linux at 13…

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3 points
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You’re a computer enthusiast. Android phones are computers.

Not everyone needs to be a computer enthusiast. It’s ok that you are though. No shade.

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30 points

Teenagers. US teenagers, specifically. So definitely no big problem.

Personally for me the problem starts when there is no mobile hardware which supports free/libre OS. It is already visible in the supported hardware list of LineageOS. Large tablets, particularly.

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11 points

As a teen, I’m glad I’m European. Nobody has mocked me for using an Android from 2019

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4 points

I’m wondering if it’s tied to how status symbols differ per culture. Its been 20 years, but I don’t remember status symbols mattering much to my environment when I was a teenager in the Netherlands. I wonder how that is now.

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27 points

“Nearly 9 in 10 US teenagers use an iPhone”

No.

“Nearly 9 in 10 US teenagers SAY THEY use an iPhone”

FTFY.

How many actually use an iPhone remains to be seen.

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20 points
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Deleted by creator
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22 points

This. Self selected, self reported. Not a good survey.

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9 points

You have literally described all surveys, good job.

It isn’t like people who run surveys don’t know this and take it into account, there has been plenty of math that has been sussed out to try to remove the kind of bias that can happen in self reporting.

There’s reams of science dedicated to this problem, it isn’t new. I’m tired of seeing this argument shat out without a shred of consideration for scientific and mathematic history of taking surveys.

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26 points

Wonder how many of these teens are buying their own phones.

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