Early web communities saw Apple as ideologically aligned with openness

Evidence

Cyborganic was deeply embedded within previous iterations of San Franciscan technology culture. The slightly older generation of digerati like Howard Rheingold and Kevin Kelly, members of the WELL online community, served as mentors to the group. Cyb-organic drew inspiration from the early homebrew computer scene and identified strongly with Apple products and Jobs’s and Wozniak’s garage startup origins, as many social media aficionados do today. Some Cyborganics supported Apple because they worked there, but others detested Microsoft’s proprietary model and viewed Macintosh computers as ideologically aligned with openness and self-expression. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 134

Categorization

• XREF: This ideological identification of a tech brand with freedom/self-expression anticipates the identity-and-values work of contemporary personal branding, relevant to the influencer-culture frame. — connects to: Closed-platform control and tax avoidance mark Apple’s imperial posture — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 189

Broader Connections

• Closed-platform control and tax avoidance mark Apple’s imperial posture #contradicts (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 189