When you think of bullying you don't think of tiny bubbles popping up in a phone message. But there are some that are suggesting that Apple is throwing a certain amount of premeditated shade at those phone users who choose not to invest in Apple products.

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Don't get me wrong, Apple makes some of the finest consumer use technology on the market. The fact that they make their stuff non-compatible with a lot of other technology is frustrating to a lot of us. I currently use an iPhone, I find it to be more than adequate for my not-so-in-depth technological needs. My phone is used to make calls, take pictures, send texts, browse the Internet, and look at the pictures that I have taken.

For the longest time I didn't have nor did I want anything from Apple. My reason for not wanting Apple products had to do with the "non-compatible" issue I mentioned earlier. However, I still recall the day when I made the switch to iPhone. My friends who were already members of the Apple "cult" made a big deal out of my messages "finally turning blue".

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If you weren't aware text messages sent between iPhone users show up on the screen in blue. If they are from an Android or non-Apple product they show up green. I always thought it was because of a mismatch in technology and platforms. There could be some truth to that or maybe it's just Apple being a horse's butt. Oh, and it's brilliant manipulative marketing too.

Tik Tok user Ryan McNeill who can be found @invisible_influence explains how Apple's tactic works on the human brain.

 

McNeill is suggesting that Apple is using a very subtle method to subliminally make current iPhone users push their Android using friends toward the Apple brand. Think of it this way, if you show up at a New Orleans Saints football game wearing an Atlanta Falcons jersey, you will be ridiculed. To put that in phone message terms, if your messages show up "green" you're not one of the cool kids.

As humans, part of our basic DNA hardwiring is to want to belong to a  group. We are pack animals. When our text messages paint us an outcast then we feel as if we don't belong.

ALLHistories via YouTube
ALLHistories via YouTube
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Now, to be fair to Apple, texts from Android phones are sent on a different network and iPhones are designed to "talk" to other iPhones by using encryption. Android phones don't have the keys to that encryption so Apple does have a technology-based reason for the difference in message appearance.

And if you're an iPhone user and you want to disable the iMessage feature on your phone you can. Then you too can send green text messages. But most people don't and won't do that because iPhone still is a status symbol among techno-feebs, pre-teens, and guys who are on the dating circuit the second time around.

rick nineg via YouTube
rick nineg via YouTube
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That iPhone envy is also what drives so many teenagers to hound mom and dad to get them an iPhone instead of a less expensive, just as functional, maybe even more functional, Android device.

I get it. It's marketing. It works. It's peer pressure, that works too. So, if you have friends or colleagues who are constantly giving you grief about how your "green messages screw up the group chat" share this with them. Share this with your teenagers too, who are whining about getting a phone that cost more than some people pay in rent every month.

The Muppets via YouTube
The Muppets via YouTube
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Tell them to relax and think of the words of the great Kermit the Frog who once sang, "It's not easy being green". Kermit and Android users will also have this in common too,  "I'm green and it'll do fine. It's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be".

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