Was Older Technology Better?
This is by no means scientific but an observation I had.
Plasma and LCD TVs seem like they have a fixed life but my parents had the same tube TV for over 30 years. I don’t see my plasma as something I will be able to pass down to my kids even 15 years from now.
My wife’s old Nokia phone – you know, the blue one that looked like a remote – worked even inside subways in tunnels. Her new iPhone, though, struggles to get the same reception as a normal phone on the same network.
My corded home telephone from way back always works. My cordless phones are more of an ongoing experiment in comparison.
Why does it seem like the old stuff was infinitely more reliable? Sure it want as fancy but there was never a fear of it not working. Anyone else feel that way?
MK
Yeah it certainly does feel like technology doesn’t work for as long nowadays!
Drei Toledo
I echo your sentiment, man.
Many manufacturers of technology today are mostly blinded by MAXIMIZING profits, instead of SERVING HUMANITY… it is actually very short-sighted and very damaging to our ENVIRONMENT. Overproduction (and bulldozing unsold techie goods after “LAST SEASON SALES”) mean HIGHER carbon-emissions.
Shorter tech life-span = quicker change of gadgets = people spend more money = more money for manufacturers.
I’m guilty of being a MAC user now, but that’s because my old ASUS laptop (which still works very well) has no more batteries for its model which is on sale in the market
Even with cellphones, I stick with the archaic NOKIA models, they have better signal, and lower radiation emission. For added info: http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone?inlist=Y&utm_source=cellupdateng&utm_medium=email&utm_content=fourth-link&utm_campaign=cell
JPK
Planned obsolescence. Not necessarily that the technology is inferior. Hell – even something as non-changing as snow shovels are worse nowadays. They used to be made out of steel and lasted for years. Now they are made out of plastic that cracks in cold weather (duh, it’s snowing outside so it must be cold).
Just more examples of big business being greedy a-holes