Are You a Fanboy? 19 Signs to Look For

Fanboy. It’s a question of personal identity. You’ve probably encountered fanboys on online forums. Heck, you might have been called one yourself. Wikipedia defines fanboy as “a term… used to describe [someone] who is highly devoted and biased in opinion towards a single subject or hobby within a given field.” Often fanboys congregate around particular computing or gaming platforms, specific games or comics, and even certain companies and their CEOs.

But how can you know for sure whether you’re a fanboy (or fangirl)? To settle that question, we asked PC World staff, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers for diagnostic signs of fanboyitis, and here’s what we came up with. If more than a few of these warning signs apply to you, well, then, you know.

Fanboy Attire and Accessories

You know you’re a fanboy/fangirl if…

…y

ou have tattoos depicting your favorite brand of tech, or characters from a graphic novel. –Mark Sullivan, PC World

…you sleep in pajamas bearing your favorite [company’s] logo. —Troy R. King (@pcrtech), via Twitter

…you’ve gone to a baseball game dressed up as one of your favorite Star Trek characters. –Nick Mediati, PC World

Fanboy Behavior and Habits

You know you’re a fanboy/fangirl if…

…everybody else is just plain wrong. Those idiots. –Alan Stafford, via our Facebook page

…you drop counterarguments the way a firewall drops packets. –Carl Tessier, via Facebook

…you’ve taken multiple joyrides around Infinite Loop. –Ginny Mies, PC World

…you find yourself defending each and every App Store rejection. –Blair Hanley Frank, Macworld

…you’ve experienced feelings of sexual arousal during new product demonstrations. –Mark Sullivan, PC World

…you spend more time (including hours asleep) in your favorite gaming universe than in the universe of actual matter (and antimatter). –Steven Gray, PC World

…you check the Wikipedia page of your favorite product every couple of hours to ensure that no unfair, unsubstantiated, and deeply hurtful comments have been added to the entry and are now just sitting there unchallenged. –Steven Gray, PC World

Fanboys in Society

You know you’re a fanboy/fangirl if…

…you refuse to reply to any your friends or loved ones’ e-mails until they switch to Gmail. –Ginny Mies, PC World

…you think there’s nothing weird about starting a Facebook page for your iPhone. –Mark Sullivan, PC World

…you have little difficulty working the terms “Linux distribution” or “pressure-sensitive touchpad” into “normal” conversation. –Mark Sullivan, PC World

Fanboy Worldview and Philosophy

You know you’re a fanboy/fangirl if…

…you can quote your favorite company’s “Official Press Release” the way a preacher quotes the New Testament. –Ed Albro, PC World

…you can’t get over the fact that a Mac user (like me) can get a job at a publication called PC World. –Nick Mediati, PC World

…every story written by professional journalists who don’t think like you are totally “teh biased”, “on the take” or “in the back pocket of [Insert your least favorite company here].” –Darren Gladstone, PC World

…you feel utter contempt not only for Mac and Windows users, but for users of any Linux distribution other than your own. –Steven Gray, PC World

…you believe that the world is divided into a force for good, as embodied in Steve (Ballmer or Jobs), and a force for evil, as embodied in Steve (Jobs or Ballmer). –Steven Gray, PC World

…you can’t get over the fact that they’re just computers. –David Murphy, PC World

There are many other possibilities, of course. If you know of any other signs of fanboyhood, feel free to submit them by leaving a comment below, or by posting to the PC World Facebook page.