Technological ëadvancesí abandon quality for quantity
These days, it seems like everything breaks. It’s like I live in a cardboard world, constantly watching what I touch lest I break it.
These days, everything is made of plastic. Plastic clothes. Plastic heels. Plastic plates. Plastic cars. Plastic, Plastic, PLASTIC!
This is the beef I have with technology: it is made for quantity instead of quality. It’s all made of flimsy throwaway plastic.
I was talking with a friend, who works for a certain financial software company, the other day. He is constantly complaining about how crappy their software is, so much so that he wants to run an anti-ad campaign against it.
The reason it is so cruddy is because it is $200 cheaper than the leading brand. It’s made for quantity over quality, and quality is what people expect. For $200 cheaper, you’re probably going to get plastic.
I was talking to another friend about vehicles. My friend drives a 2004 leading brand van, and it’s been in the shop more times than my car is years old. (I drive a ’94 Shadow, by the way … Hooray for manual transmission.) I have only put my car in the shop once, and it’s ten years older! See a trend here? Technology = plastic = piece of crap.
The other day I tried to open a bag of instant noodles with a fork that came with the package. SNAP! No more fork! Plastic! I had to eat my noodles with a spoon ...
So, provided the evidence above, I have come to the conclusion that technology sucks. Everything is made for an impatient and wasteful society to throw away.
The worst part of all this is that people accept it. People expect a computer to last only a year or two. They just sigh and shrug it off when a plastic handle breaks. And we all know people who change their cars more than their underwear.
Personally, I cast my vote for the old ways, where everything is made of steel and pollutes the ozone.
At least steel lives up to our expectations of longevity … or at least warranty.
Back in the day, things were made to last forever.
Back then, a person didn’t need special devices to fix cars — just a toolbox and a little mechanical know-how.
Back then, people trusted in the industry to give them things that were practical and efficient.
Now, the things we spend the most money on are things that just sit on our desks and in our living rooms.
And these things don’t even work 100 percent of the time. I think it’s time to push for a change in thinking.
It’s time to quit being satisfied with the flimsiness of technology and push for something that actually works. Time to put an end to plastic.
Columnists' opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Spectrum