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You would think cults might be scoffed off as something of a bygone era, when poorly educated people fell in line behind charismatic people with a secret agenda of their own. Sadly, cults have decided to stay around even in this, at least to some degree, enlightened time we live in. Thriving even more in this ever more connected world we live in, where we must swear alligience to companies and brands.

While some might want to raise a finger and object to the very use of the word in this context, I think it's absolutely fitting.

One of the most commonly talked about cult in technology is the cult surrounding Apple. What isn't as commonly talked about is the cult of anti-Apple, the polar opposite of the pro-Apple cult. These are the people who, for some reason or another, visit the same websites and forums as the fans of Apple, but their motive is to find things they can easily spew their hate upon. Ignoring facts helps, as well as having a distorted view of the world, compared to how more normal people view it. If you talk positive about Apple or any Apple product, the anti-Apple cultists will come out of the woodwork and start chanting their anti-Apple chants.

But this is of course not limited to Apple, even though that's the most popular cult to talk about. Go digging under the surface, even just a smidge, and you'll find them everywhere. The cult of Microsoft, the cult of Google,the cult of open, the cult of the IT department, the cult of Sony, the cult of Nintendo, the list just goes on and on. Zealous followers of a company, its products or even a way of doing software development. Cults, plain and simple.

Some companies like to paint the fans of another company as total sheep, ever obedient to the company in question and always first in line for the new products. Indeed, some people are such simpleminded folk that they feel an urge to get whatever the latest shiny is. But that coin has a backside too. The company who likes to mock the other company in their advertising has a similarly obsessed following, who also wait in line, go on hate-sprees online and practically go on crusades in the interest of their prefered brand. Sheep much? It's really the same thing, just for another company.

With the rise of social media a lot of people deidcated to one cult or another have found brand new outlets for their single-track chanting, as more and more people are likely to pay attention to them. With blogs, twitter, facebook and whatnot, there is nearly no place online where you can escape the obsessive cults. And heavens forbid you try to read tech blogs. If they aren't in one of the well established cults, many of them sure are trying their best to create their very own.

In this modern world we live in, almost everybody is in a cult, and I hate it!

Robert Falck

Robert is a freelance tech writer from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on the British Tech Network, listen to him yap away on the British Tech iOS Show and read even more of his stuff on his site streakmachine.com or you can even follow him on twitter @streakmachine.

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Robert Falck

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