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A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

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Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#61

Post by Gigachad »

Loughla wrote: post #42
ruffrey wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is mostly how human communication worked until the internet era. Those who aren’t plugged into social media still operate this way - sharing directly with others. In real life, when people interact, they begin by asking “how are you?” Which is the opposite of social media.

I'm on no social media (besides this site). The number of times a day I have to say, "no, I didn't see [insert random event here]." Would honestly surprise you. There is just an expectation in society today that you know everything that's going on in everyone's life. It's very, very strange to me. It's hard to explain why, but I get serious black mirror sort of vibes from it.

No one expects you to view social media all day. That are asking “did you see ___” because they want to tell you about it but first check you haven’t already seen it.

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#62

Post by brightlancer »

derefr wrote: post #34

> they form group chats centered around trips that only one participant was on It never occurred to me until now, but there's actually a somewhat-coherent "sharing philosophy" woven through many of Apple's products. It seems like Apple envisions a world where social networks and "broadcast"-sharing of content don't exist. In this world, when people want to "tell people" an update about their life, they share that upd…

Could this be because Apple doesn't run a social media service? On some levels, are their products/ services competing _against_ social media?

Or is this just part of Apple's (and many of its users') elitist and exclusivist mentality: they're better than everyone else, they don't need to interoperate with the rest of the world, and their sharing is reserved for the select.

(Not all Apple users are like that and probably not even the majority anymore, but it _is_ Apple's mentality, it was the dominant mentality among Mac users, and it's still common enough and OMG loudly pronounced enough by current Mac users.)

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#63

Post by tobr »

ajmoo wrote: post #58
twic wrote: post #7

If you worked on these images, surely you would be irresistably tempted to leave little easter eggs referring to past characters? "Hey Kim, how are you doing?" "Great, thanks! Apart from going a littleh hard on the ravioli last night!".

I worked on many of these! Was on the Marcom team that rebuilt screenshots for content swaps and hi-res output. Every screen went through multiple rounds of approvals by many different teams, including writing. Unfortunately any Easter eggs I tried to hide in there were all caught ;)

> rebuilt screenshots for content swaps and hi-res output

Can you explain this work in more detail? Are you basically reconstructing the contents of a screenshot in vector graphics so it can be translated/edited/scaled up but still look correct?

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#64

Post by theragra »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #47
derefr wrote: post #34

> they form group chats centered around trips that only one participant was on It never occurred to me until now, but there's actually a somewhat-coherent "sharing philosophy" woven through many of Apple's products. It seems like Apple envisions a world where social networks and "broadcast"-sharing of content don't exist. In this world, when people want to "tell people" an update about their life, they share that upd…

Well, this is how I live. I don't use any broadcast-based social media. The only form I consume would be YouTube or Twitch, I believe without any parasocial weirdness. After I finish a trip (recently I went to Supai, AZ) I send little bundles of photos to different people via my phone very much like these screenshots.

It would feel a bit weird to me, because it looks like marketing myself and my ego. In blogs or social networks, people only check you if they want.

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#65

Post by kazinator »

> Like a lot of troubled young men, I used to pay close attention to Apple’s developer conferences and special announcements, eagerly anticipating each new generation of iPhone and operating system.

... As a deranged older man, I now collect artifacts from Apple advertisements, to reconstruct the characters and interactions portrayed in their fantasy world, to inform the public about how (for instance) they text differently from real people. In my defense, it's no worse than collecting Princess Di memorabilia, or being crazy into Pokemon or Harry Potter.

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#67

Post by zamfi »

tptacek wrote: post #23

This is very funny, but it's also disquieting, because people who text like this absolutely do exist; I know because I'm on the list for the block I live on. Modulo a lack of spelling and grammar errors, this is what normal people sound like. The idea that very normal people behavior is this odd or telling is, itself, pretty telling!

I’m also on the list of the block I live on, and people also text like this on that list…

…including, me. On that list.

I think part of what’s disquieting is that there is a “formal text English” that exists (and people know about), but people use it only in certain circumstances, like when you’re texting a group of people that you don’t know very well, and that you don’t want to offend, or that you want to seem “proper” for.

It’s temping to think that what we observe on these lists is how those people are, but every now and then someone on my list will post a message intended for someone else…and it no longer fits “formal text English”.

I suspect this language’s use is highly contextual. To me, part of the the oddness of it all is that I would almost never use formal text English in the contexts shown in these marketing images.

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#69

Post by ricardobeat »

jayd16 wrote: post #36
samastur wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like mine do. And most messages I receive. I find it weird that some started seeing punctuation as some weird imposition.

You even send messages like "lol." with the period?

I don't think I've typed out 'lol' in a message since circa 2005, on online chat in some dark corner of the web. Culture bubbles are an incredible thing.

Re: A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials

#70

Post by astrange »

jwells89 wrote: post #37
smegsicle wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

studies show that kids these days interpret texts ending in a period as passive aggressive or something

In a similar vein, ending with an ellipsis (…), while used by many to indicate thought, consideration, or other sort of pause in speech often comes across to younger readers as a sort of passive aggressiveness or shortness of patience.

It's interpreted as old person, because there's a class of boomer that ends all their sentences with … and then puts them in the middle of half of them too.
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