Is Technology A $ Making Scam? (injection, Simpson, how much, cost)
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As I sit here using a 12 year old computer with Vista software, I am pondering this question.
Supposedly this non-supported Microsoft product should function very poorly at best.
Yet it only slows down at night, when my poor ISP is at peak usage.
And the cell phones, mine is outdated after only 4 years. My next one will be even more outdated, a waterproof/shock proof flip phone. Smartphones cost as much as laptops now, and I do need a new computer.
Taking into account our destruction of the planet, are we as a society more efficient in 2017 than we were in 1990?.
I think we accomplished more without all the distractions.
At my work no. The printer was on 24/7. We probably consumed an entire forest worth of paper a day. I had entire drawers full of carbon copies that ended up in some warehouse.
Getting somebody to sign something, meant you got in a company car and drove to their office to physically sign it. Company emails were printed up as memos and somebody had to physically distribute them after printing them.
Getting photos developed meant you had to buy film, drive to a place to develope it, then drive back when it was done, just to find out your vacation pics were blurry.
Watching a movie meant driving to the movie store at least twice (pick up and return). Cars got worse gas mileage.
Airplane tickets were expensive. So was long distance calling. Cell phones were $1 a minute.
Shopping meant driving all over the city looking for a good deal and hoping it was in stock. You paid top dollar for everything because you didn’t have the benefit of cross shopping with the entire world.
Driving with a map was far more of a hassle than driving with a phone.
Getting and receiving paper bills and paying them with checks added to forest consumption. Not green at all.
Oil changes and overall car maintenace was more frequent and generated a lot of waste.
That’s just a few I can think of off the top of my head.
I cannot concur with car maintenance, as the electronics have actually added to my mechanic trips.
The next one will have been built prior to 1984, before fuel injection.
And Google maps/mapquest have failed me on a number of occasions.
That said, may I ask you this:
Do you have more time now as opposed to before the technological conveniences?.
Probably depends on how you EMPLOY the technology to help you.....
Case in point....you can get UP and change the channel on a TV but, isn't the remote a taaaad quicker and you can digest more crap and watch less commercials! Well, sometimes.....
And how about the corded phones...best feature, they NEVER died and you need NO batteries.....worst, you had to place too many of them around the house for convenience although I grew up with one in the house....
Cars? Well, we all like to opine about the simplicity of the older cars....as if....do you realize, some of those things had what? 12-17 zephyr fittings to actually grease? points and condensors...every 6 months???/ realllly......ac that broke routinely every few years.....where 100,000 miles was something else....oh, and how about all that rust???
You can buy a used corolla/civic and do next to nothing to it other than oil changes that OTHER people do for you for about 10 years.....cars back then needed a LOT of "preventative maintenance" to get 100,000 miles.....the ride was crappier and the seats were awful....some had some cool styling though....but, let's not forget about the harpoon of a steering wheel....it's almost impossible to believe in retrospect that a car was let out of the factory with a metal post aimed squarely at your mid-chest ready to impale you in a head on accident.....no airbags, little if any padding and steel post that could go right through you at a 50mph hit.....not thanks...
Cars are exponentially more expensive but, modest used ones are actually a better buy over time than those in the past...cars were "disposable" back then and planned obsolescence was the rage for Ford, Dodge and Chevy...period.
we did have more free-time as there was simply less "stuff" to acquire and maintain...the part I miss is that kids, were well, kids. you went out and MADE your own fun....be it M-80's taking things apart, dirt clod wars (yes, aka Simpsons style), kick the can, kickball, wiffle ball, softball, baseball, soccer, simple running races!!!!
Monster Magnets that allegedly could hold a volkswagon from going.....about 15 of us actually tried it as kids...it failed...where truth in advertising was anything but.....no matter, despite the lack of "stuff" in the 60's I wouldn't trade it...I think kids actually miss out on that now...they are latchkey.....and life is passing them by...especially the days of youth where stories are lived and imaginations were off the chain.....
Us as children being forced into self-entertainment nurtured critical thinking skills.
Skills millennials are sorely lacking, my 27 yo GF needs a watch to remind her when her smartphone rings.
I cannot concur with car maintenance, as the electronics have actually added to my mechanic trips.
The next one will have been built prior to 1984, before fuel injection.
And Google maps/mapquest have failed me on a number of occasions.
That said, may I ask you this:
Do you have more time now as opposed to before the technological conveniences?.
Yes.
I can talk to family and friends during my commute and not wait till I get home.
I can listen to an audiobook during my commute instead of reading.
I can work from home using my laptop and an internet connection.
If something I watch on TV comes on after I go to bed, I just watch it on demand later.
Instead of driving around all weekend shopping for something, I can just order online and go about my business.
Money making? Yeah, duh. Scam? No... New tech for the most part does what it says on the tin.
I agree.
I am typing on a 7 year old laptop and I don't have a smartphone. The laptop started giving problems and i'm wondering how much longer it will work [lenovo's fans are no good].
To answer the question: technology cannot be a scam. Every new thing is a little faster, convenient, lighter, etc.
The problem is that the production of good has switched from mainly serving the consumer to profiting the makers. Just to give an obvious example, take apple: It cost about $200 to make an iphone that is sold for $800 or more. The difference goes to apple, not to the actual people who work to make the product, but to stock owners. That is the real scam.
People want fairly price, lasting, easy to repair goods. Makers make overpriced, disposable, difficult to repair goods.
We hear of the great achievement in technology but it's just exaggerations. Supportively nasa sent men to the moon but were never able to "go back", and their talking about going to mars. I wouldn't call that a scam, that is plain lies.
I am typing on a 7 year old laptop and I don't have a smartphone. The laptop started giving problems and i'm wondering how much longer it will work [lenovo's fans are no good].
To answer the question: technology cannot be a scam. Every new thing is a little faster, convenient, lighter, etc.
The problem is that the production of good has switched from mainly serving the consumer to profiting the makers. Just to give an obvious example, take apple: It cost about $200 to make an iphone that is sold for $800 or more. The difference goes to apple, not to the actual people who work to make the product, but to stock owners. That is the real scam.
People want fairly price, lasting, easy to repair goods. Makers make overpriced, disposable, difficult to repair goods.
We hear of the great achievement in technology but it's just exaggerations. Supportively nasa sent men to the moon but were never able to "go back", and their talking about going to mars. I wouldn't call that a scam, that is plain lies.
The consumer benefit/ company profit dynamic has been the foundation of capitalism since its creation.
That’s nothing new. Apple is publically trader and you can be one of those stock owners.
-- Back in the day, you needed to drive to a million stores (metaphorically, of course) just to see if they had what you needed (even clothes - driving to few different stores to see if they had your size). Now, when I am at the store and they don't have my size, what I need, etc, I can just order online right in the store by my smartphone.
-- Speaking of smartphones, my personally beliefs of smartphones are irrelevant but smartphones can be useful. Like this for example. Before smartphones, you needed to actually remember what the clothes or items were and go home just to go on website, look it up, order, etc. In the store I can take pic of barcode, item comes up, and then I could add it to my cart. Other benefits too.
-- Back in the day we needed to write out checks. Bill came (unless it came late or not at all), and then you paid by check. Then mail it out, wait for it to be processed, etc. That took 10 to 12 days (give or take). Now I can pay online. The bill gets posted the same as it would if it were mailed. Just by a click of a button the payment goes through (aka processed). Payment is actually received 3 to 6 days later (pretty much half of checks).
I can go on, but these are few examples. New/er stuff is supposed to make our lives easier.
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