At least I'm better than that guy.
Humans share a lot of common behaviors. One of them is the tendency to want to be on the "winning" side, even if which game they're trying to win is not entirely clear. Whether it is a sports team, a particular brand of product or life in general, people like to win.
Fanboys, for those of you who don't know, the Urban Dictionary defines them as: A person who is completely loyal to a brand or company, regardless if they suck or not. Or a passionate fan that often lets his passion override social graces.
Nowhere the concept of 'winning' more apparent than in fanboys, they are convinced that their team/brand/ product is better than any of its competitors and will fight to the death to prove it. We see this often on online communities. Just mention the word "PlayStation” or "iPhone" and watch as the comments section devolves into a battlefield full of mudslinging and insults. Which, while entertaining (read annoying), serves no real purpose. The two factions will usually rehash old, well used arguments and try to 'prove' that their product in particular is the best, USUALLY THROUGH SHOUTING.
By remaining loyal to one brand and defending it from any attack, people gain one thing: A sense of victory through a feeling of superiority. There are several examples of this, PlayStation vs. Xbox (vs. Nintendo), often called the console war. iOS vs. Android, Apple vs. Microsoft , Pirates vs. Chiefs; Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Internet Explorer. All of them demonstrate one thing, the need to win.
"Brand X is totally better than brand A, because of reasons. I mean, look at that guy. He’s using a brand A cellphone, what a loser."
Now, fanboys are on the extreme end of the scale, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us are immune to the human nature of winning. Many people only join up with a certain movement just for the sense of superiority. Some vegetarians/vegans abstain from meat, not because they believe in the principals of vegetarianism/veganism but because they gain a certain smug pleasure from telling people "Oh, I’m a vegetarian, I don't eat meat." "Why don't you eat meat?” "...Um... because meat is murder!"
Recently, I watched half an episode of MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen. During the show, A father took his daughter car shopping. In the car on the way to the dealership, she told her father that she wants a car that will make people go ‘wow!' This tells us two things. First, she was not looking for a car that she liked in particular, one that was practical and wouldn't cost a fortune to maintain. She wanted a car that would make people think that she's well off. Thus boosting her reputation and giving her a sense of superiority. After all, many people's goal in life is to have more money, you could say that people with more money* are further ahead in the game, and thus, they are looked up to and admired. The second thing this teaches us is that MTV made great use of alliteration in that title.
They say that everyone loves an underdog. But is that true? Do you love that sports team that keeps losing and the closest that they've come to winning is a 0-0 draw? No, you don’t, you too would rather cheer for a winning side. But still appear to remain loyal to your team out a sense of loyalty or patriotism. That saying could be amended to say, “everyone loves an underdog, after they win."
Wouldn’t you feel slightly better about yourself if you got a higher mark than your buddy on a test? Or if your child came home announcing she's first in her class? Of course you would, because it means that you're doing something right. That you're 'winning' in life. In order to win, one must do better than their competitors. And since life is a game that everyone plays, those small triumphs in our day to day life all add up to our sense of victory.
And as for you, if at any point while reading this you thought something along the lines of "At least I don't do that." well then, that just proves my point.
Theo McPherson.
(I get my feeling of superiority from sitting back and making observations about those who think they're superior.)
*Money cannot buy you happiness, but it can buy you stuff that makes you happy.
