The artistic appeal of the white MacBook

Laptops have established their place in computing history. Some have been innovative, others bland.

The white MacBooks were appreciated by many. They were (and still are) useful. And they were unique.

The uniqueness of the white MacBooks is in their popularity for decorations. People have added stickers and artistic work to many laptops, but the white MacBooks had more. It was as if they reached out and asked people to decorate them.

Perhaps it was the allure of a flat, white space. (There was a black version of the MacBook, but it was rare. I saw none "in the wild" so I cannot comment on their decorations.) Laptops from other vendors came in black, grey, beige, and sometimes with bright colors, but I recall none in the "Imperial Stormtrooper White" used by Apple.

Perhaps it was the prestige of owning an Apple product, and not a typical PC running Windows. In that age, running an operating system other than Windows was partly an act of rebellion.

Perhaps it was because the people who owned MacBooks were typically artists, musicians, writers, designers, or other creative folks.

That was in the age of the white MacBook. Today, things are different.

I look at the laptops in today's world, and I see little in the way of decorations. Even (or perhaps I should say "especially") among the Apple laptops. Today's laptops are, mostly, plain and un-enhanced. (Yes, there are a few who add stickers to their laptops. But the number is a lot smaller than it used to be.)

Some factor inhibits decorations. It might be the new color scheme (silver, gold, or grey). It might be the texture of the dimpled surface. It might be the curve of the device covers, no longer offering the flat surface.

I will content myself with speculation, and leave the analysis to the psychologists and anthropologists.