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Christmas Traditions Aren’t What They Used To Be
Busting the ghosts of Xmas past
I saw a post recently that lamented the contemporary MacBook Pro’s connectivity, or lack thereof. On older models the sockets available included ethernet, firewire, USB, display port, headphone out, line-in and an SD reader. Today MacBooks only come with two USB-C sockets and a headphone socket on an Air, three USB-C sockets, an HDMI, headphone and an SD port on a Pro.
While working with students at a University as a technician for Film and Media this lack of connectivity for high data transfer (video and audio) was a constant bottle neck. Every student who was using a MacBook had to use a third party breakout box to allow the Mac to be connected to anything that wasn’t USB-C compatible (anything older than four years at this point). The reasons for this are the usual Apple guff: it’s to save space, allows for more processor space, makes them lighter, faster connectivity, “it’s the future, so get with it daddyo” etc etc. All of the rationalisations ring hollow, when we all know that the real reason is the desperate need by corporations today to ring fence their customers so they are locked into a particular system forever, and it’s one of the many reasons why so many people are turning against Apple.
HOWEVER, the post I saw lamenting this framed the complaint in meme format by contrasting the images of the ports on the side of an old MacBook with a modern MacBook with a caption that read “reject modernity, embrace tradition”. It’s a common enough meme used as much to lament the lack of ornamentation in modern architecture as it is to complain about the graphics for the latest Assassin’s Creed game. It’s a funny joke, if taken at face value, but it has some troubling implications if looked at more closely.
The concept of tradition is a malleable one and it is something that provokes fierce division. The word is often used in defence of something: “we’ve always cooked the Turkey that way, it’s tradition”, or in praise: “a lovely, traditional roast dinner”. Using it in this way encourages us to think of something nostalgically, particularly around…
