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Technology & The Economy: Part 1.
By sparky | April 2, 2009
The world-wide economy is – interesting – to say the least.
We’ve had the credit bubble go *pop*, the subsequent mass hysteria of everyone pulling money out of investments so fast (thanks to the wonder of technology: High speed Internet and Internet banking) causing entire countries to become bankrupt, and generally society starting to panic and think “Is this the next Great Depression?”.
That question, I’m not in a position to answer – nor is it the purpose of this post. Rather, considering where consumerism has taken technology.
So, there was this lovely scene. Everyone was working for someone, making some money – and then you had these people in the financial sector willing to give out credit to the workers – it didn’t matter how much you earned, you could get a line of credit from as little as $2000, to as much as $20,000. Whether you could repay it or not they wouldn’t care.
Some people don’t really think about that. They just thought: “You beauty, quick money – I can get all those cool things I want” – but don’t really need.
That well suddenly dried up – and the horse drinking from it: no one’s seen him since.
The last 10 years has seen some dramatic growth and change in technology: I point it squarely at the consumer market.
Advertisers are always trying to get the everyday person (consumer) to feel that they need something to fill their otherwise boring life. That new 52 inch Plasma. That 10.2 surround sound system.The latest Mac Book pro. Anything they think will help them get on with everyday life in a more ‘interesting’ fashion.
The huge profits that this generated for the companies allowed them to push Research and Development, to make things better, & to find new technologies. Along the way, the additional hype of a growing energy crisis and shortfalls in resources has prompted certain companies to rethink what resources they are using. Never a bad thing – provided they could come up with a reason why they’re wasting it all on products that in 8 years are going to sit in a rubbish dump.
It’s always a ‘short lived’ focus.
People used to go out every 6 – 12 months and get the newest, greatest digital camera. People will now stick to the one they’ve got. The number of mega pixels is irrelevant these days. They all do a fantastic job of capturing an image. That’s all it has to do.
People are no longer throwing out computers that are a year or two old because they’re “getting slower”. They’re putting more memory in it, running maintenance procedures, and trying to make it last a little bit longer. One has to wonder how long they’ll really last – but it’s reasonable to expect at least a 5 – 8 year life span.
I’d like to think hope that we’re going back to a different mindset. Sure, the ‘throw away’ society will remain to a degree, but maybe people will hold off on throwing away technology that still works for a little while longer.
Topics: Hardware, Hype, Public Perception, Software, Windows | No Comments »