Planned Obsolecence

Have you or someone you know ever had a device or gadget - phone, mp3 player, laptop, gaming system, etc. - break down, and suddenly the new gadget being advertised seems like the only option you have left to gain back that device that is becoming more and more essential to your daily lives? If you have, then you were probably a victim of something called planned obsolescence.

    In the simplest of terms, planned obsolescence is the principle that companies looking to make more money will exploit by intentionally designing products to fall out of circulation or break down within a set time frame in order to better market a newer product at the same time that the older product is falling apart. Chances are that if you’ve owned any kind of technology, you’ve been exposed to planned obsolescence at some point in time. As college students, most of us obviously can’t afford to continue to replace a broken device when it begins to fall apart. However, this principle goes beyond the technology you might find in your pocket. According to an article by Amy Hoidas on qualitylogoproducts.com, products such as ink cartridges for printers, light bulbs, and - what really hits college students in the wallet - textbooks are all planned to break down or fall out of circulation within a set amount of time in order to increase the profit margins of those companies that produce them. But that’s not all; according to an article on economist.com, even the clothing and fashion industry practices planned obsolescence, producing garments and styles with the intention for them to fall out of circulation or fall apart within years of each other in order to better market what’s “new” or “in style”. The article states, “A classic case of planned obsolescence was the nylon stocking. The inevitable ‘laddering’ of stockings made consumers buy new ones and for years discouraged manufacturers from looking for a fiber that did not ladder.”

    As someone who enjoys innovation and progress, the idea of planned obsolescence worries me deeply. Companies will actively halt progress on trying to make peoples’ lives better in order to make a little more money, even if it’s something as simple as developing a better kind of fiber so clothing doesn’t fall apart. Of course, there’s the other side of this same coin, where companies market something that is obviously better and built more to last at an outlandishly higher price in order to make more money. Going back to the clothing analogy, it’s evident that garments produced by off brands are not going to last as long as a name brand like Hollister that has more resources devoted to producing quality clothing, but that is what makes a Hollister garment more expensive than those off brands. The whole idea of companies exploiting their consumers in these ways is deeply unsettling, and as I continue to see people around me get upgrades to their devices, the devices themselves are becoming harder and harder to maintain. For example, I recently switched from a Samsung Galaxy S4 to an S7, and immediately noticed that I can no longer remove the battery from the S7, which was an essential part of my troubleshooting process on my S4. And this is not the first time this has happened, even in Samsung; before this, Apple intentionally made it’s devices difficult to take apart or modify so that if your Apple device were to break down, you couldn’t fix it yourself without a great deal of difficulty or funding to get it fixed or, like Apple was intending, replaced. Planned obsolescence is a big pain, but there are simple ways to avoid it.

    Hoidas talks in her article about some simple ways to avoid planned obsolescence. The first and foremost is how to avoid paying through the nose for textbooks by turning to the internet for lower prices on the same editions of textbooks being used in classes. To this point, I would advise students to talk with their professors about the nature of the material in their textbooks. Granted, there are some subjects which are continually discovering new information that students need to know, and so some older editions of textbooks will not cover the same subjects as others. However, if your professor tells you that one edition of a textbook will cover the same material as a newer one might, don’t waste your money. For some other ways to avoid it, you can view the whole article on the qualitylogoproducts.com website with the search “planned obsolescence.” 

    As far as mobile devices such as phones, tablets, and laptops which students might use to make it through their classes, my advice is to be a smart consumer. I’m not trying to condemn these companies for trying to make money, because that’s the whole point of entrepreneurism. However, when considering which product you want to purchase, like the common debate between Apple vs. Samsung and other smart phones, don’t be taken in by flashy advertisements and gimmicky products that accompany them. Be a smart consumer, and know the specifications of the gadget you’re looking to buy. Learn how it’s designed, and if you’re bold, learn how you can repair it should it break down. Most importantly, however, is to treat your devices with respect and careful handling in order to get the most longevity out of them. Follow these steps, and you can increase the life of many of your all important devices.