Post 4: Your Discount Starts Here

 

I was at Sac State today for an academic competition when I passed by their campus bookstore. In huge print larger than the name of the building read, "Welcome to Sac State. Your Apple Education Discount Begins Here." So, that's it then. Companies have started infiltrating education, trying to make their products a necessity. You obviously don't need own a Mac to pass any course from communications to quantum physics, so why take that approach in marketing? Well, the fallacies present are overwhelmed by our own self-indulgence.

There is a hidden analogy present that I have some faults with. True, you may get a discount on an apple computer, but how does this have anything to do with education? You could even get by without your own computer in college (probably not anymore, but still). So, no matter what, investing in an Apple product that costs upwards of $600 is in no way a discount even if you get $50 off. People these days still seem to fall for the "discount" trick. We justify our large purchases by claiming we are saving money. We use an equivocation of the term "saving" to show that the money we spent is less than the money we "could" have spent. But this is a huge hypothetical situation. You could also say that you "could" have bought nothing at all, and realize that the true definition of "saving" is NOT spending money.

The second trick behind Apple's introduction at Sac State is use of flagrant assumptions. Apple wants us to assume that Apple products are necessities for education today. Saying "Your Apple Education Discount Begins Here," implies that you are obviously going to use Apple to get an advantage in education; you just need to know where to start. Tying in to this is the assumption that Apple products, specifically the Mac and the iPad, will give you any advantage or assistance in your education. Compared to Windows computers, Mac's biggest advantage is aesthetic, which does not factor into your education in the slightest. What it does do is force us to lie to ourselves. By nature, we Americans believe we have the right, as members of a capitalist society, to pursue products that are bigger, better, faster, or stronger. We hide these desires and use excuses such as necessity to justify them, but they are always present. Even I'll admit that I would love the idea of getting a new MacBook Pro for college at a discount no matter how useful it really is. In fact, the childish fascination I have for aesthetically-pleasing and organized technology plays a big factor in my desire to own a Mac. But if you ask me, I'd probably claim the computer would help me organize my school work and visualize projects.

The biggest lesson here is not to buy products just because you feel like you need them. Evaluate products based on actual utility rather than false necessity or popularity. Maybe it can help you stay a step ahead of everyone else.