The Infamous Bandwagon

The topic for this post is a result of Carleigh's comment on my last post regarding her and her husband jumping on the "Mac" bandwagon. As I was sitting here reading her comment, I couldn't help but wonder is jumping on the bandwagon when it comes to technology really a bad thing? Shouldn't we all want to be on the bandwagon? If a piece of technology is popular... it must be popular for a reason. People must find it functional. It must be serving its purpose. In society, we tend to think that jumping on a bandwagon is a negative thing. The bandwagon is a place where you go if you're unintelligent and unable to make up your own mind about the value of something. However, that is not the case with technology. The creation of a bandwagon in the technological realm results from a piece of technology being successful and user friendly. For example, if sales for the iPhone rocket up by 110% in 6 months, and sales for the blackberry plummet in 6 months... that could be because people don't want to buy a product that doesn't serve their needs. Yes, peoples needs do vary, BUT in terms of a smartphone, the reasons why a person would purchase one in the first place are pretty universal. You want to be connected, through several mediums (email, texting, calling, etc), you want to do things quickly - at the touch of a finger. You don't want to be losing connection.

Therefore, if a certain piece of technology is successful in sales, it is reasonable to assume that it is a good product. With technology, the bandwagon no longer holds a negative connotation - like it does when referring to things such as belly tops (circa 1990's) or massive bell bottom jeans. Like my good friend Carleigh stated, "we like being on the bandwagon" (or something to that effect). When it comes to technology, it is likely that many people WANT to be on the bandwagon.