‘You’re Telling Me in 2023, You Still Have a ’Droid?’ Why Teens Hate Android Phones

My entire life I've been reading news that only iPhones are cool, yet my social circles don't care and have never said anything like this. I feel like this is a 'Hello fellow kids' type of investigative journalism, that is a secret apple ad.

"This unbiased and purely informative piece of journalism sponsored by Apple."

No one gives a shit which phone you have.

Also, no one uses the term “droid”.

This article reads like “fellow kids” nonsense.

I think that is mostly a US thing, as I see way more Androids in Europe than iPhones. But I could be wrong

Permanently Deleted

I think the most frustrating part is Apple is willfully hampering the ability to intercommunicate between iPhones and Androids and people aren't like "Oh, fuck them for doing that", they're like "Oh, Android sucks." Like it's just a wildly successful and incredibly scummy tactic to convince people that Apple devices are superior and people didn't just fall for it, they're willfully diving in headfirst.

It's a shame, really, because I do think they make some pretty good hardware. Might not be my thing, but they make a good phone. That said, I'll never patronize them because of the bullshit I've had to endure trying to communicate with my iPhone-owning family.

Teenagers are well known for their experience and insight

Only very stupid people think that brands are really important

Holy fuck, kids are cringe. I hate this blue bubble elitism so much. Glad it's not a really a thing in Europe.

This news just in: teenagers can be arseholes to each other.

Back in my day, it was over the brand of sneakers or jeans that you wore.

I'm amazed it's 2023 and we've still not universally adopted a protocol better than SMS. Thanks Apple

I'm 14 and I hate iphones I prefer Android phones rooted with a custom rom

They'll also say they're too smart to be affected by advertising.

This has to be a US thing, in Switzerland there is not a single person I communicate with using iMessage. It’s WhatsApp or Signal.

I am a teen and I love android becuase it give me freedom I can do whatever I want to do by rooting or installing Custom ROM. Also It's Privacy Focused(degoogled my Tab + Root). Other Teenager don't know shit about privacy and FLOSS fuck them I don't care.

Honestly, I have found teens using iOS to be more tech illiterate. Like they dont know about Piracy, Ad-blockers and stuff. Crazily believe that apple IS privacy friendly and shit like that.

Ah yes, news so US centric I can't even understand what's the point being made in the article, that's what I didn't miss from reddit.

*Why American Teen Hate Android Phones

Also I'm very glad that Lemmy is a lot less US defaultism than Reddit is. It's pretty tiring having to constantlt hear about Democrats and Republicans, or bubbles, or Nissan cars bad, you get the point.

Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles

I know a 46 year old man who constantly complains about green bubbles in group texts. He doesn't seem to realize that it's his phone that isn't following a standard and instead has chosen to refuse the RCS standard and lock him into proprietary bullshit.

Not an American and couldn't care less about the scene there lmao the rest of the world uses Android

Is this US specific? Because plenty of people (kids included) use Android in our country. Samsung is the most popular I think.

Those teenagers are the victim of a failing educational system because they're clearly idiots.

Why would I care what teens think? Android gives me more control over my phone.

Honestly fuck that "blue bubble" entitlement.

The people who actually care more about what phone their friends are using enough to peer pressure them into getting a phone of a specific brand or model are about as dense as a black hole and about as smart as a bag of rocks.

Look, I'm cheap, and I'm not swayed by Apple's smug, trendy marketing horse shit. Remember "I'm an Apple, and I'm a PC?" Who didn't want to punch that smug Apple guy in the face?

But sure, whatever. You fetuses go ahead and cling to Apple because you're told to do it with slick ad campaigns. We all fell for it too... once. Then we realized we were paying for those ads with the Apple tax, and we found better things to do with our money than subsidize paranoid Orwell fantasies and thirty second music videos.

@AlmightySnoo
I see this from another angle. The 99% average people using stuff like this and judging people based on the color of a txt bubble simply are not worth hanging with. I mean the whole reason I use Lemmy and mastodon and not the platforms that the 99% use is for this reason. Let your honest choices filter the crap from your life.

I really question this supposed study by an advertisement company

US teens are stupid.

It's not the kids, the parents in my extended family all prefer iPhone's because they can't figure android out. They passed this on to their kids.

It's US only so it doesn't matter to the rest of the world. I don't understand how it became like that there.

I was there Gandalf, I was there 1000 years ago when you had to install itunes and there was no copy/paste

Kids are dumb

It seems we've come full circle. I remember early adverts for Android phones showing a line outside an Apple store waiting for the latest iPhone. An older couple ask the youngsters in front of them if they're excited and they reply "oh no, it's not for us .. it's for our parents. We use Android".

I truly do not understand how so many people still fall for apple's pr strat. It's almost like a cult for some, when there's been competition in the premium market segment for over a decade now, that offers products that are at least as good as apple's...

Yeah they like beats too

This is what happens when you succumb to techno AIDS.

Welp, I am the only one in class using Android, so I get some laughs. If I am going to drop Android, it will be for full fledged GNU+Linux phone. Postmarket OS already officially supports Android apps via Waydroid.

I don't see how I'd use something as restrictive as iOS. Not even being able to sideload apps without jailbreak, so Apple decides what you install.
There's so much stuff I'd miss, I'd feel like using a modern day feature phone.
How is that cool?

Imagine taking the wall street journal seriously

Idk, these seem to be first world country problems

In rapidly and non rapidly developing countries, we have brands like realmeme(realme), tecnologically braindead(tecno) and xiaomeme(xiaomi) take over

iCrytoSleeps(iPhones) are alright but people here like to be conservative with their money. Ironically they look at good specs since mobile gaming is all the rage here

I personally daily drive a oneplus one, to spite people like the ones mentioned in the post

Perfect timing for this Apple propaganda "journalism," as Apple is releasing another phone and have openly stated they don't expect it to sell well.

Marketing, and the fact that phones are now super boring, everything is web based, there's no more cool apps, everything is just a frontend for some web service, or a damn webview.

The historical feature gap between Androids and iPhones is mostly gone, and since the tech doesn't matter anymore, marketing can go a long way.

The article is also very us centric, in places where cost matters more, the iPhone is seen as a status symbol, just like every other thing that costs a lot for no reason.

I dont really like android. Symbian and even windows phones performed better on inferior hardware. Their weird lifecycle seems to me wasteful and blurs the line between what's running or not. It only became stable once hardware got way better. It's a shame that every other option failed. because the only thing worse than android is an apple controlled environment.

But WHY? God I can not understand why someone would willingly use iOS. I have both an Android and iPhone and every time I pick up the iPhone I wonder why anyone would use this willingly.

Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.

So I've heard this sentiment a lot, and at one point it certainly was true, but are teens still texting these days at all? I swear almost everyone moved to instant messaging over Snapchat, Instagram, Discord, etc.

Great clickbait title from them. This is a US / NA specific issue and thankfully isn't fully reflective everywhere else

Ah great, so Apple won. They have a gynormus mass of imbeciles addicted to a logo. Good to know.

You're telling me in 2023, kids are using "Droid" again to refer to Android?

I hadn't heard that since they literally first came out.

Also, this isn't surprising. It was assumed that younger generations, those growing up with PCs, Tablets, Smartphones, etc, would become inherently skilled with their use. Turns out that was entirely false because it also turns out people don't want to learn what they aren't interested in. So if you don't care about anything more than TikTok, Insta, and Snapchat, then you don't learn anything more than what is necessary to operate them. And Apple makes this very easy in terms of not needing to relearn even an iota between their models. Android cannot say the same.

Mom, I'm tired of having software choices! I need to be locked into an ecosystem immediately!!

I love ruining your group chats!

I'm a teacher. Most of my pupils have Android phones. All use WhatsApp.

I'm not in Retardistan, though.

This literally translates how dumb kids become by just abstracting everything from them, having little to no digital literacy, having little to no customisation, hands on. Fuck you apple, Fuck you iToddlers

Kids are dumb

My kids both have android phones (cheap ones) and if they demanded iPhones I'd tell them to gtfo. But my kids aren't brats and are content with their phones they have - cheap Samsungs - that are capable of running all the crap they're into - Tiktok, Snapchat, Whatsapp etc. Why would they even need anything more powerful?

Maybe there are private schools where phone snobbery is a thing and rich parents indulge their brats every desire. Maybe in that environment an iPhone holds an allure that an Android cannot match. But there are plenty of weird premium Android phones - flip phones, folding phones etc. so maybe that is nonsense too. If I were a spoiled brat with rich parents I might be demanding mommy & daddy buy me a Z Fold to show off. If my parents were super rich I might be demanding they get me a designer phone like a Vertu.

Idk man, I'm 18 and lovin my modded Galaxy A52S. It can do everything an iphone can and even more, for a fifth of the price...

Just idiots applying peer pressure to get others down to their level.

They must love having to ask their parents for a new phone every couple of years because they can't install apps due to their phone being out of date

Permanently Deleted

Nothing makes me cringe more than kids who buy an Apple device and pretend they own it.

I saw a young American tech YouTuber, he would get an old iphone SE as a backup phone just so he could use iMessage with his friends. I'm not judging though, i think iPhones are nice devices just very limited.

Status symbol VS smartphone, a phone isn't smart if you can't sideload apps or flash a custom rom.

The lion is not concerned by the opinion of a sheep.

I had an iPhone 5S in 2013 but since that time they've done, what, 9 new versions? A new one every year? You shouldn't need a new phone every year.

My little brother has an Android (like the rest of my family) and he hates it. For the longest time he has been begging for an iPhone.

Consumer fetishism

Apple just has good marketing honestly, growing up it was pretty rare to give out your number so I message wasn't really a thing. The main driver honestly is marketing. Androids are seen as cheap, iphones are seen as rich. The UI is sleek and magical. The ecosystem just works, and services like airdrop are ubiquitous. I fear we might see all major flagship players step out of the US as gen z gets older and android being branded in the US as exclusively budget and IOT.

With the amount of ads and influence put on kids these days, it's really not surprising at all. They aren't even making the choice themselves.

Phones have gotten to the point now where switching to an iPhone would be an inconvenience since I'm somewhat bought into the android ecosystem, but other than that, I genuinely wouldn't care that much. It's amazing how little there is between them now.

I own a Pixel 7 but I hate that you always have to reach a compromise on something. This time it's the SOC. The Tensor G2 is a toaster. I looked for the Galaxy S23 and it has camera issues with shutter lag.

My stepson announced that he was going to save money to buy an iphone, and these are incredibly expensive in Brazil. We don't even have that blue/green bubble nonsense here, because everyone uses whatsapp and teens use discord or twitch or whatever when they're on their pcs.

Anyway, we give him a 50bucks allowance per month, so I said ok, good luck saving your lunch money for two years to get one if you want it so badly.

That's when you give them a flip phone then see how they feel about the android when they earn it back.

I don't think that's applicable to Germany for example. We have plenty Android-Phones here and ppl aren't using iMesage really.

iToddlers are liked by kids. News at 11

I don’t think it truly matters what phone you use so long as you’re satisfied with it.

I started with a Nokia and migrated to the galaxy s2 then a HTC. After some time I switched over to an iPhone 5 and then spent a couple years with a middle of the road android who’s brand I have not even committed to memory. My current is an iPhone 11 which I’m pleased with.

All this to say, I think there’s weird cultism around the android ecosystem that is, to me, offputting. Wave your flag with pride sure, but no need to poo poo someone else’s yum all the while.

Edit: I just looked at what community I commented in…

In Spain nobody uses SMS since 2010's (or iMessage), IM's go mostly on WhatsApp and lately some Telegram

Article bought to you by Apple™️

Teenagers are well known to do everything differently in a way of rebellion to the majority. So, the majority has Android phone. Right!

I wonder what the numbers are for the rest of the world. it seems to me that Androids are much more popular at the far reaches of the EU e.g.

No one give a shit about iMessage. I've watched my kids exclusively communicate with their friends via Snapchat and discord.

Get a job, earn money, then you can have your Iphone

Just a note to all you can do the same thing with web.archive.org since archive.today (and all its associated other TLDs) is clearly doing with your info. They purposely won't respond to CloudFlare DNS requests because CloudFlare doesn't release extra information about you. The Archive owner released some half-assed story about per-country requirements, but DNS is the worst way to enforce that programmatically. So there is something shady there. Archive.today is shady in regards to your privacy. So if you're using CloudFlare DNS, you'll just get repeated captcha's because Archive.today doesn't follow correct DNS standards.

Conspicuous consumption in a nutshell.

Ouch? Who gives a fuck about the hormonal opinions of naive teenagers?

I like my iPhone… but that’s because I’m used to Apple stuff, and I can get a good deal on the things. Judging people is stupid. You gotta admit, the Galaxy Z Flip is pretty damn cool.

This enrages me more than it should

Permanently Deleted

Teenagers are idiots, I'd know cause I was one once.

Teenagers do not have fully developed brains, literally, not an insult, their brains are not finished developing. Their brains are inferior to fully formed adult brains, certain individuals may be brighter than others but still inferior to their adult selves. Their opinions should mean nothing to you.

I tried a full phone cycle on Android. A Wileyfox Swift. I stuck with it for 4 years. I’ve dealt with a handful of Android tablets. I still have to wrangle Android on fire sticks.

I love to mess around with electronics but holyshit never again. These are devices that need to work and perform, I got so damn tired messing with Lineage and TWRP - the alternative being the zero updates from the manufacturer. The whole stack is a janky mess, and a moving target in terms of security and performance. Flagship phones that might stay current and perform well for a couple of years? Wtf?

So many android apps are dogshit. There’s no minimum bar to entry. Malicious apps sneak onto the play store. Out of date apps linger around.

My phone is not a project piece. It’s an essential device. Apple gives me a stringently vetted App Store, strong privacy controls, dependable hardware and performance. They expose the settings that I need and optimise everything else. My iPhone works and does it’s job with far less painful maintenance. I’m definitely willing to trade some freedom for that utility.

Not only that but Apple hasn’t tried to drm the open web lately. Are you sure this is consumerism and peer pressure? And not a dogshit software stack with poor performance, security and hardware driving away the users who are most engaged with their devices?

Do I care what phone you’re using? No. But I think bullshit click bait articles which effectively denigrate an entire demographic for the sake of instigating a tired back and forth about apples vs oranges should stay on the other side of the fucking paywall.

You pay over $1000 for a iPhone? Pretty fucking cringe if I do say so.

That's a gringo problem.

Every couple of years I get a new phone along with my wife. Our kids get our old ones. They haven't complained yet about having 2 year old androids.

Sure, let me know when you can install apps outside of your App Store. 😔

another thing with the iPhone/Apple ecosystem is everyone having roughly the same experience for a given generation... the android platform is a wild west of varying degrees of hardware performance and capabilities. take a cheap ass carrier branded phone vs. an S23 ultra... both are running the same underlying android OS, but the carrier phone is going to be a barebones platform barely capable of running anything other than the OS... and then you factor in how well the manufacturer integrated their crapware on top of android, people willingly pay the Apple tax for a reason. personally, i'd never give up my s23u for an iPhone, but i'm also not Apple's target demographic.

Well now that a bunch of dumbass teems don't like my phone, guess I'll get rid of it.

Sadly the slow and inevitable death of Android creeps closer every day.....

Apple and Android developers go about creating their experiences in different ways. Android developers look at specs on a piece of paper. They want the highest and best specs and customization, so that, on paper, when compared side by side, there devices appear to be objectively better than iPhone.

Apple on the other hand, looks more into the psychology of how or why people do what they do, and how they interact with their devices. They take the “thought” out of it, so anyone can pick it up and figure it out.

I think Apples way speaks to people on a subconscious level, where it’s just a fluid pleasant experience all around, but people have difficulty figuring out WHY they prefer iPhones.

This makes people believe that the only reason people might buy an iPhone is because they want to appear “cool” and are victims of good marketing