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To be or not to be obsolete?

November 16, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Obsolescence is a concept that’s very much increased in our time — old-school versus new-school. A bygone era.

The idea of something, a product, how to do things, or a way of life, becomes antiquated or out-of-date. Old fashioned, and no longer popular or feasible.

Obsolescence has been shown throughout history. Either forcibly or naturally. Slavery in the British Empire, and especially in the United States, was – after a long, bloody civil war – finally banned, which was definitely for the better. Despite the cotton gin being invented, it made slavery worse, expanding its growth because more cotton could be picked faster, while plantation owners bought more slaves. The idea of aristocratic ruling, absolute monarchies, varied throughout countries. Some were violently removed, like in France. Others changed and adapted, such as in Britain, while some saw peaceful abdications.  

Change is inevitable and constant, and with that comes obsolescence, though it does take time. The telephone replaced hand-written communication. Radio was, at one point, the dominant form of entertainment, and then eventually, television took that spot. Right now, we’re living through a push to transition to electric cars and everything with ‘going green.’ Digital media is vastly increasing its popularity and hold over physical media consumption, as seen with the closure of Blockbuster thanks to Netflix. Remember carrying a boombox for your cassettes? Then a case of CDs to listen to with your Walkman? And now iPods and eventually just your smartphone. There’s definitely a lot of changes in our world today.

Sometimes, a product becomes not completely obsolete but niche. Vinyls were the dominant form of music creation and consumption; then came cassettes, CDs, and iTunes. Vinyl still exists and has seen a small renaissance in popularity, but it is still not back to its glory days. DVDs completely changed how we consume movies in comparison to VHS, but they are still being sold along with Blu-Rays because of the similarity. 

Horse and buggy eventually became obsolete with trains, and then the car came into the picture. Ocean liners and zepplins soon became obsolete once commercial air travel became viable, and less dangerous. 

In war, swords and shields were eventually replaced with guns. Cavalry became useless in World War One because of machine guns and the trenches. So tanks became the new mechanized calvary. Battleships and dogfights have all been replaced with drone attacks, it seems. 

Some obsolete ways, I believe, are for the better. Certain tools, like electric drills, nail guns, or log splitters, make work faster, easier, and less physically arduous for our bodies. A farming tractor gets more work done faster than a horse-drawn plow. Flat screen TVs provide a better picture quality, and are much lighter, than a tube TV.

The idea of obsolescence is a scary one, in part because you feel like you’re becoming obsolete, no longer of use or old. Hand drawn animation and animatronics have been nearly completely replaced by CGI, as seen with Disney.

A blacksmith losing his job would be difficult to adapt to in a changing world. Numerous times, losing a job meant starting from scratch because that job is no longer in high demand, if at all. You feel like your way of life is being removed, and with that, your identity and self — fear of being replaced. 

Despite Amazon’s takeover of shopping, I very much prefer going into the stores and shopping around, especially around Christmas. I still collect physical media of movies, shows, books, games, and music. Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t have a smartphone. 

Planned obsolescence is definitely a problem, in particular with technology. If a product reaches a market saturation point, then sales drop. And in a capitalist economy/society, that’s never a good thing. Every year, new car models come out, or a new iPhone, but really, what, and how many changes, have been made in 365 days? What I really don’t like is when a product works just fine, but it becomes “outdated” and “no longer supported” so it becomes obsolete. So you’re forced to buy the new version or product.

Pretty much every piece of technology today, from fridges and televisions to a simple toaster, has a planned, artificial expiry date. Otherwise, if the product is of high quality and parts are still being made, then nothing new is sold, and the economy really suffers. That’s why healthy competition leads to a longer product lifespan. 

This may cause a consumer to reject something new because they’re comfortable with what they have. Too much change leads to rejection. As consumers, we generally don’t like being forced into buying things, especially in regard to planned obsolescence. 

I believe whatever you do in your private life is up to you, but in society, that’s very different. You might still chop wood with just an axe, and for you, that still works. For others, it doesn’t. We may live on the same planet but still in different worlds. And those can either clash or live relatively peacefully. If an aspect of your life is objectively not good for you or not working well, then that has definitely become obsolete. 

Obsolescence isn’t going away anytime soon. I wonder what the next thing to become obsolete is? 

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