Blog Entry #7

Slade Part 2

In this blog entry I will examine the next section of Slade’s book, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America.  This section goes into more specific detail about a company’s effort to increase consumer purchasing.  In the first half, Slade brings to our attention the planned methods that companies have to ensure that their products will continue to be purchased.  This part of the book gave me a better understanding by providing specific examples of companies using “planned obsolescence” as well as the “model change.”  It also helped me to better understand the author’s perspective on the situation.

It seems that after looking into many companies and the various traits they have in their marking and production, Slade proves that technological obsolescence is very apparent.  Although we have seen in previous areas of the book that this obsolescence is noticeable, he provides us with reasoning as to why it can hurt the American system.  As we have started to understand, from reading Slade’s book so far, obsolescence is a trait that Americans have gradually inherited and become accustomed to.  Although a lot of blame can be placed on the company, we have also greatly contributed to the disposal of products.  With efforts to have the most advanced, newest, and most popular piece of technology, we have begun to shape our own opinions into believing that everything is replaceable.

This is where I believe that Slade is contributing his own opinion.  He is portraying the idea that if we don’t recognize our own faults in disposability then soon it will control and be a part of almost every aspect of our lives.  To think that you always have the option to go out and purchase a new piece of technology is a terrible mentality.  This could affect our country in many ways and I believe Slade does a great job proving that.  The area that could take the hardest hit from this disposability is our economy.  America’s economy is currently in one of the worst recessions in its history.  While the production and consumption of products does benefit, in many cases you will see a person purchasing some type of new technology or innovation that isn’t truly needed.  This type of purchase is usually pricey, ultimately leading to another expense that many cannot afford.

This section of the book was very interesting to me as I felt that it realistically proved American’s tendencies of disposability through examples.  By providing us with different companies methods of production I noticed how our everyday lives could be affected.  With afferent types of marketing, American’s are vulnerable to continue buying new technology and devices as they come out.  This book, Made to Break, by Giles Slade, has taught me a great amount about how a stronger focus on our habit to dispose of certain things, that may not need to be disposed of, can greatly help us in many aspects of our everyday lives.