Although a bit odd and extreme, this video perfectly explains the conspiracy theory about “planned obsolescence.” In class today, I couldn’t help but think about how we live within such a wasteful and disposable culture here in North America. Whether it is the food we throw out for fear of contamination, the clothes that so easily rip, the iPods we constantly have to fix, or even the light bulbs that burn out within a few months, it seems as though we are constantly having to replace our consumed goods over and over again.
With this in mind, if it is not your grandparents or parents complaining about how everything was simply better quality back in the day, then it is your older siblings who are also complaining about, “how the original nintendo’s lasted way longer than the damn new one’s they’ve had to fix twice.” Heck! Even I can feel your siblings pain when it comes to iPod’s and the 5 times I had to replace mine a few years ago! Which really makes me question why I still use Apple products in the first place? Nonetheless, what does this mean and why does it seem that everything is just meant to break nowadays?
To further explain this, planned obsolescence is one of the ways in which I can make sense of all this “crappy” merchandise.
By definition, planned obsolescence is, “the intentional practice by firms to build products in such a way as to expect them to become non-functional, thereby compelling consumers to purchase another newer and similar product.”
Basically, companies have created a genius way to make millions of dollars more just by making goods that are meant to fail, so we, the suckers, will have to keep purchasing new and similar products. It’s no wonder were all broke! — Money set aside, this shows a significant link to quite possibly one of the main reasons why we have moved into such a disposable culture. We purchase new product and dispose of it so frequently that this has just become a norm for us. Arguably, this is a problem. What ever happened to more bang for your buck? I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time for us to start re-thinking what we’re buying. If it breaks more than twice, I think it’s time to search for something that will last you longer than two months and save you the headaches when you get that next bill on your credit card.
Shop smart my fellow consumers, shop smart.
This video sort of ties in with my last blog dealing with the lack of understanding of globalized events and cultures. I forewarn you though that some of the content is a bit discriminatory, so I apologize if anyone gets upset. Nonetheless, I think it’s important to realize that this is reality for some people within North America, which is what makes it shocking and, frankly, quite embarrassing to watch. I can only hope that the implementations of globalization will somehow start to directly effect these individuals who are so desperately in need of an awakening.
By making this issue viral in YouTube, I personally think it was one of the best things to come about from globalization. People are just simply ignorant about the world and they need to really visualize and see what is going on in the world to gain a better understanding. The people who choose to click this video are instantly shown that maybe there is some sort of issue with the the lack of things they know, yes, it’s funny at times but it’s quite smart of a tool. The people watching this who say “wow, I actually don’t know that” might have a spark of curiosity to inform themselves of what the answer is. This, in the end, although not effective for every single person, acts as a stepping stone into educating North Americans of the world that they live in. Let’s face it, whether we like it or not we are all connected.
Does anyone even know why or how Greece is effecting the entirety of the European Union? Really, without the lecture actually mapping out what the problem’s actually are, the majority of people have no clue what is going on. We see on CP24 every so often little excerpts in the box reading things like “Greece is in trouble” or “Greece is going bankrupt” or even “Greece has borrowed $1,000,000,000,000!” (not a real number amount guys, I even don’t know the specifics!) But what does this really mean or let alone tell us about the issues? We have conversations about the financial crisis, but there are so many points of views that have been generalized and thrown out there by the media that, really, I don’t think anyone could tell you exactly what was going on unless they worked in the financial industry. With this being said, we obviously live in a globalized world where a lot of our goods and information come from worldwide sources, but with globalization having such a strong influence on our every day lives, why is it that North Americans know absolutely nothing about what is going on in the rest of the world? In fact, this is a good question to ask! As sociologists, we could come up with a million reasons as to why this may be occurring. Things like lack of interest, lack of proper news coverage using the wrong types of information or even the whole idea that “ignorance is bliss” could be some of the complaints that we have. But really, what we are missing is that if we only knew the implications that these global disasters had on us, then maybe we would care some more. I mean, really, I’ve been sort of bashing humans intellectuality and compassion for events worldwide for a few of my blogs, but sometimes reality is a bit harsh my friends. When people see that Greece is in crisis they say, “well that sucks” but because they do not feel connected to the issue they move on. Even though globalization has connected us to the world, it on occasion forgets to emotionally connect us with the problems occurring. The issue is not that Greece is suffering, the issue is that no one understands why and how to even see if they can help the situation. The European union didn’t even understand the implications of Greece going bankrupt until recently when the economy started to take effect, which means that the world is just simply out of touch. We have no excuses to say things like, “oh well I wasn’t able to get a hold of that person” or “oh, I had no idea what was going on in that part of the world” because we have every sort of technology thinkable to make connectivity possible.
Therefore, maybe we should actually stop discussing how globalized “in theory” we are and actually do something about it?
It seems as though my thoughts keep resulting with the idea that technology is merely a tool used by humans to aid society, but that seems to be where it stops. When we were discussing the differences between the original social movement traits and the twitter revolution and the effects of new media and social networks on the social movement process, it seemed as if twitter was simply better used as a tool to facilitate change. With this in mind, any sort of revolution requires sacrifice and danger, strong ties with trust and mutual care and, finally, strong leadership and motivation. Without any of these traits, how will change occur? People are so comfortably set up within their daily lifestyles, that no one is ever willing to sacrifice and change unless a) it means something to them or b) through force to do so. This then ties in with the idea of power relations and whether twitter exemplifies the type of power that is necessary in creating change. Twitter, in general, represents the globalization of communication that is meant for functional, resilient, adaptable and conversation you do not need to commit to. Essentially, Twitter allows access to information you may have not heard otherwise, which brings in a sort of power original social movements may have not been able to do. Instead of a smaller particular group fighting for their rights, people from around the world are able to participate and scrutinize the events that are happening. With their being more people to join in on the action and fight, there becomes an intimidation instilled for the groups in opposition. Although this is great, Twitter’s power just doesn’t seem to compare to the power and structure a traditional social movement has. If people are sitting half way across the world on their computers how are they supposed to instill fear in the opposition? How will they be able to physically force someone to not do something? And how will they even be able to share a solid piece of mind in simply one sentence where millions are also doing so? Governments and people in opposition might be using twitter to get information, but when it comes to people fighting for their rights, who is going to hear them out and how will that even change things? Thus, it is important to recognize that all change comes about through reality, not virtual realities. People need to use the power of their physicality, their intelligence and their powerful persuasion to map out the way they are going to win their battles, without which, change will not occur because nothing is ever easy. Sitting at your phone and tweeting “There needs to be change in Iran!” simply just won’t cut it, unfortunately citizens, you need to get your hands dirty, but continue to tweet because your fellow friends across the world do appreciate your support!
As I was trying to figure out what to write my third blog on I stumbled on the section in Chapter # 10 that used “Girl Talk” as an example of how copyright laws seemed to have changed in recent years. With Girl Talk, for those of you who don’t know who he is or who haven’t read the beginning of Chapter # 10, he is a DJ who layers a variety of popular song clips in interesting ways that just simply mesh together. The controversy behind him is the idea that he hasn’t quote, “bothered to obtain official permission from the sampled artists or labels before making use of their work on his album ‘All Day’” (Wershler; 2011). According to Wershler, “some legal scholars believe that under current Canadian and US copyright laws, the creation of these mashups in general- probably constitutes copyright infringement.” With this being said, if what Girl Talk is doing is technically illegal, then why isn’t he being sued?
Interestingly, my friends and I were listening to Girl Talk about 3 or 4 years ago and we never even questioned if he was allowed to be doing this, but really why would we? We were just amazed at how some guy could put these songs together without making the overall melody sound like crap.
In our culture it seems as if people don’t really care about how you get to the end result, we just care if the end result is good. It’s not like teenagers are sitting there and saying, “wow, I love Girl Talk because he’s so illegal” - well I mean at least I wasn’t at that age. They are saying, “Ohhhh I remember this song, he has made this sound so sick.”
This attitude seems to be apart of post-modern culture and this idea that authority can be bent. In this case, Girl Talk is probably not being sued because he has actually created a new sound using old media. Thus, if he is not releasing exactly the same song then technically in his defense his work is “new”. In my opinion, the music industry has become an industry where copyright laws have been being bent for years. Music is an art and therefore people will argue it’s meaning and purpose “artfully”. Some people feel that since it is a form of expression, it should be free for all to listen, where as others who are more “capitalistic” feel that the rules should be more rigid to stop this “free music movement.” I enjoy the end result of music and I do, in fact, appreciate the hard work put into making it, but when it comes to legalities, there’s some things like copyrights that I just simply look at and say “scam” because I am questioning the authority; that my folks is post-modernism at it’s finest.
As we know, technology has become extremely prevalent within our society. Whether it is phones, personal computers or even TV’s, technology has become an important part of the typical Western lifestyle. But, with every object or advancement we invent, there comes the debate on whether these advancements are actually “assisting” society or “destroying” it.
At one point in time, we lived in a world where technology wasn’t available to everyone. As we know, language was one of the most important ways, and still is, for communication between people. But as times have changed, what was once a human quality, has now become a quality that can also be expressed by technology. In the text “Intersections of media and communications”, they present an interesting question which is, “Does it matter that language and voices are no longer the domain of human beings?”
In regards to another technology course I am taking there are two theories that say technology is either good for humankind or it is bad.
The first theory is called “instrumentalism”, which discusses the idea that technology is only a tool that humans can use to their aid and more importantly, that they have full control over. On the other hand, there is the determinist perspective which says the complete opposite. Determinists believe that technology has taken over the human race and that we have become incapable to live without it in our lives.
Therefore, with this in mind, does it truly matter if technology has taken over our lives?
It’s an interesting concept, but personally I feel that even though technology has been added to a human characteristic like language, we still hold the power as humans. I cannot picture a day where humans will let technology take over their voice and allow it to speak for them, or at least I never will. Also, in terms of people who are deaf or have other sorts of disabilities, technology has been able to give them a voice. Thus, I think the answer to this question truly relies on if you are a believer in technology as tool to assist the human race or if you simply think technology has taken over the human race. Which one are you?
Have you ever been stuck in a position where you can’t properly communicate what you’re meaning to say? I know it definitely happens to me! Whether I can’t simply find the word or figure out how I am going to say what I’m thinking, this can be a daily disaster that can sometimes be embarrassing! But no fear my fellow tongue tied friends, auto correct is here! As some of you may have been lucky enough to experience auto correct, you will understand that it is simply an auto correction on you’re phone when you are typing any sort of text. Auto correct, not entirely sure how it specifically works, corrects the words you may not be spelling correctly or what it thinks you might actually be meaning. Great technological invention right!? WRONG! Yeah sure, auto correct helps you sometimes on those nights you have had simply a little too much, or when you’re half awake in the morning and can’t properly type, but for the most part auto correct takes on a mind of it’s own. When you start saying things like, “yeah I got this great new paint colour it’s called Mystic Fart” when really the paint colour is mystic fairy there tends to be a bit of a communication problem! As funny and ridiculous auto correct can be it definitely brings about questions on how technology can replace a humans brain? As we know, new media discusses that all media is more personalized. This is true to an extent because we are using our own phones to type whatever we want, but when you add advancements like auto correct to these personalized devices it simply doesn’t work out. My point being, technology, even though it is so advanced, can never think exactly the way you do, well at least not at this point in time. So sorry guys, I guess you just need to keep on embarrassing yourselves :)
-Kylie
give yourself a good laugh and check out http://damnyouautocorrect.com
