Critical Analysis #8

For this week I will take a look at the second half of Slade's book, Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America.  The first half of this book is largely about how manufacturers essentially plan for things to go wrong with their products after a certain period of time.  The reason that a company would want to do this is plain and simple: to generate more revenue.  In addition to planned failure, companies also use things such as model updates as another way of getting consumers to purchase another product of theirs.

In the second half of his book, Slade begins to focus on specific examples of this type of behavior in companies.  He uses many examples including radio and computer production.  Slade also introduces ther eader to terms such as "death dating" and he backs up his argument with great evidence.  However, after his examples he changes his train of thought to what I believe to be his main thesis; that technological obsolescence not only affects the products we use and consume, but it also changes the way that we think about the world.  Similar to how Technopoly suggested that we would soon be totally dependent on computers, Slade is arguing that soon disposability and obsolescence will be dominant traits across all aspects of life.  Like Slade says in the first half of his book that American's invented disposability, we are now incorporating that into all aspects of life.

I do agree with Slade for the most part in this case.  Obsolescence is a serious problem in our society and the way I see it, it causes two problems.  The first is that we are developing a culture where in order to be accepted and succeed you need to have the most advanced technology.  Functionality is no longer a priority, it often seems as if we want new things simply just to have them.  The other problem that obsolescence poses for American's is a tangible effect.  When we all buy new technology constantly, we are disposing the old stuff somewhere too.  By creating all this trash we are also filling up our landfills and destroying our planet.

Slades description of technology, railroads, and houses clearly explains that we are controlled by obsolescence.  Manufacturers and companies are able to "help" consumers make decisions because of how influenced they are by the market.  I couldn't believe the section in the book that described how porches and basements could be in or out of style.  This type of belief among the public likely made some people seek home renovations and therefore provides a perfect example of how obsolescence has affected the public.  Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I did learn a lot from it.  I never knew anything about this subject so it was all new to me and definitely helpful in explaining its point of view.