A recent survey of teens found that 87% have iPhones, and don’t plan to switch. They have their reasons.

(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)

Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.

It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.

“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”

ouch 😔

    • Thom Gray@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      338·
      10 months ago

      There’s a hidden cost to using a phone created by an advertising company to track you, not to sell hardware. I’d rather just pay more for the phone than be subjected to more targeting by the predatory capitalists and oligarchs ruining technology.

      • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.orgEnglish
        501·
        10 months ago

        The idea that an iPhone is more secure or private is a farce you’ve been sold. It’s true that Google makes more money off of tracking behavior and selling ads but it’s absolutely laughable to believe Apple doesn’t do that also. They just focus their efforts more on entrapping you in an ecosystem where you don’t feel even able capable of giving another tech company money besides them. Need proof, look at the fact that lawmakers had to force them to use USBC. The excuse they gave for not doing it was flimsy af. They obviously were looking to keep profiting from their shitty lightning cables. Never once did the fact that it’s outlandishly inconvenient to need a different cable than your friends with Androids for charging your phone ever register as a factor for apple. Proprietary and overpriced. That’s the entire business model.

        • 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          211·
          10 months ago

          As someone with an android, and someone who worked in digital forensics, iPhones absolutely are more secure. It’s way harder to break into an iPhone.

          • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.orgEnglish
            8·
            10 months ago

            I think part of what I’m reacting to is the “bragging to delivery” ratio. Google never brags about being the most secure OS, yet many people smarter than me point out ways it’s better than iOS.

          • SnipingNinjaEnglish
            4·
            10 months ago

            The problem with that is you’re bunching so many phones together based on their OS when their security is dependent on more than that. I’ll admit I’m unaware of the current situation but Pixels for example have been more secure than the iPhone in the past and are still considered secure in general, no idea about how they compare to an iPhone.

            • 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              3·
              10 months ago

              Where I used to work, we had a massive digital library of android phones with confirmed exploits. They went up to quite recent phones and OS versions. The android team wasn’t particularly big because there wasn’t a major need for manpower to keep up. The iPhone team was highly specialized and had their work cut out for them. I wasn’t on either team (Windows and sort-of OS X) but I fell into their meetings and wikis quite often due to platform overlaps.

              And the latest and greatest wasn’t necessarily what was getting attention anyway. Plenty of people worldwide use old phones

          • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.orgEnglish
            3·
            10 months ago

            Hmm, I’ve also heard the opposite kind of – at least from an exploit patching perspective a lot of people claim Google fixes the security holes much quicker. But admittedly I’m sure you know a lot more about this than I. I’m relying on secondhand information

      • rDrDr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        10 months ago

        Apple tracks iPhone users. Apple is an advertising company. Apple just tries to block other advertising companies from tracking you on their platform, because they want more money.

      • randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyzEnglish
        42·
        10 months ago

        Every now and then I see claims like yours popping up on Lemmy and Reddit. That Google is an advertising company and that you should not entrust your data with their phone or OS. Strangely, sometimes opinions like this gets highly upvoted, while some gets downvoted into oblivion.

        (My opinion: Google certainly is an advertising company, but I prefer Android anyway.)

        • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          10 months ago

          At least there’s a chance you can install a custom OS like Graphene or Lineage on a phone, if you choose correctly.

          There isn’t the slightest chance anymore of making an Apple phone your own.