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Apple Fans Respond "Religiously," Says BBC

A BBC documentary series entitled “Secrets of the Superbrands” cites neurological studies saying the Apple brand has a tendency to cause a “religious” response in the brains of its biggest fans. CNN reported that MRI tests done on extreme Apple enthusiasts confirm the reaction, which appears to “light up the same parts of the brain as images of a deity do for religious people.” CNN listed the ways in which Apple fans display their devotion—tattoos, bumper stickers, shrines in their homes made up of obsolete hardware, and country-wide pilgrimages to the first Apple store in Virginia. In the past, the blogosphere has been littered with “Apple as religion” stories, including one by the Huffington Post in 2010 describing “the power of consumer brands to supplant traditional religions in people’s lives.” Texas A & M media professor Heidi Campbell described the Apple devotion as “implicit religion…(which) can happen when the use of, say, technology becomes a substitute for belief and behaviors once attached to religion and religious practice…The religious-like behavior and language surrounding Apple devotion/fandom is an example of this.”