Glade begins his account of the obsolescence of technology by informing the reader on some pretty scary statistics. For example, Americans discarded about 100 million cell phones in 2005, amounting to about 50,000 tons of now wasted equipment (Slade 1). Every year usable cell phones are simply thrown away, amounting to what Slade calls "a toxic time bomb" (Slade 2). Obviously the fact that all these cell phones being discarded raises a serious environmental issue, but it also underlines the rate in which new technology is being consumed, and what we call "old" technology being placed on the shelf. By understanding Slade's statistic about the average life of a PC (Slade claims Americans use their computers for only two years), and how he later states that this life span is being continually cut down each year, we can gain an accurate view of how fast we discard today's technology and how eager we are to consume tomorrows new invention. I think that this fact also goes hand in hand with our shortening attention spans; we need something to do, and something new to "play" with almost every day it seems. The more bored we get, the stronger our desire is to fulfill this boredom, and consuming new and cool technology seems to be our generation's way of fulfilling our boredom, whereas our parent's generation might go outside and play with the neighbors, or turn on the TV. It is no wonder that our generation's viewing of TV has decreased significantly than from our parent's generation, due to all of this new and wonderful technology available at our fingertips.
Slade later highlights our tendency to discard technologies by giving a brief history of the two automobile giants of the 20th century, Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan. In short, Sloan's GM had more success than Ford because Sloan envisioned his products to have obsolescence after about half a decade of use, whereas Ford produced his cars to have durability and long-lasting value (Slade 39). Sloan adopted a business mindset of an "annual model change", in other words he would produce new modeled cars each year, each car having a new, and direct audience in mind. For instance, he utilized lighter colors and less rigid model designs to appeal to a female consumer base (Sloan 46). Although the discarding of early Model T's might not have affected daily life in the 1930's, or even really caused such an environmental dilemma, modern-day technology certainly has. This idea of an "annual model change" has been widely adopted by the heads of corporate companies, producing new models of similar products to appeal to a slightly different audience, thus boosting sales, and unfortunately causing the obsolescence of certain technologies. Take for example, the iPod. Apple produces iPods each year, and each year their mp3 player is slightly different than last year's model, although virtually providing the same service as their older model did. The iPod nano, a smaller and more compact version of the classic iPod, serves an audience of children and of certain people who do not have such a wide taste in music. It also comes in different colors; pink, green, blue, etc... Each color serving a slightly different consumer: pink might appeal to a small girl, while a teenager might think blue brings out his masculinity. The idea here is that different models of virtually the same product brings in new audiences, and more sales. These sales in turn cause the older models, such as the hulky classic iPod (who has one of those nowadays?) to be forgotten by society, thrown away into the never ending trash basket that is our Earth.
So far, Slade has provided us with a history of the obsolescence of technology in America, giving the reader an account of the automobiles of the 20th century, and the discarding of luxuries during the Great Depression. His summaries can provide the reader with a view into the future, setting the stage for a bleak outlook of trash yards filled with Mac's and Alienware's, iPhones and Blackberries.
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