Made To Break ( Third Blog )

     Electronic waste is spinning out of control, especially in America. Landfills can no longer contain all the waste Americas dispose of, but is it really waste? Working devices are being thrown away especially cell phones. The reason is that companies keep producing new models and "modern consumers tend to value whatever is new and original over what is old, traditional, durable or used." ( pg 265 ) Advertising companies are not the only people to blame, some Americans have what is termed neophilia. There are three types of neophilians that contribute to E-waste, pristine, trailblazing, and fashion neophilians. Pristine's are obsessed with what is new, trailblazers always want the newest technology, and finally fashion fanatics speak for themselves. These three groups give rise to what is known as a social cascade, where Americans tend to follow what others do. Soon a domino effect occurs and we are all throwing away our "waste" to replace it with what is accepted by society, something "new." Such a pattern "renders the term obsolescence itself obsolete." ( pg 265 )
     The never ending advancement in technology is rendering obsolete their immediate predecessor. If we look at slide rulers "death", it came due to the invention of the handheld calculator. Once a new invention is created that offers speed and accuracy companies can not afford to stay behind. For example, the creation of the first four function calculator "the M-27 manufacturer was Fristo, Denner, and Pape, a company that produced slide rulers." ( pg 202 ) The company new that the future would lay in calculators and no longer in slide rulers. The invention of calculators also brought the obsolescence of the skill set that older generation engineers possessed. A line was drawn out between old engineers who wanted to keep the skills they possessed such as using a slide ruler rather than the new engineers that took for advantage the simplicity of the calculator.
     Miniaturization and the short life span of goods is creating the E-waste problem. Durability comes from psychological and technical obsolescence. These new models that seem as necessary are nothing more than companies attempts to extract money from its consumers. A change in color does nothing for a cell phone and its time that Americans notice that. We are polluting our air and water, at the cost of a product that is created by companies to break down in a few months? Americans might one day believe that "marriages are throw away items as well and...on a global scale countries and indeed subcontinents are disposable like Kleenex." ( pg 228 )