Planned Obsolescence: Good or Bad?
When it comes to planned obsolescence, individuals often see it as a business tactic of corporates that create short life cycle product to urge consumers to purchase the newer model of the product regularly. The practice of planned obsolescence is ubiquitous, especially in the technology industry. Technology companies like Apple or Samsung release new models of their smartphones and tablets annually or even biannually; software companies like Facebook introduce new version or new features of their applications on the weekly basis.
However, in the article, Oliveira (2013) posited that not all planned obsolescence was bad. First, when designing a product, one with longer life cycle was usually costlier to make, thus a reasonable life span of a project was essential to manage resources better and to prevent overdoing the intended objective.
Second, in some circumstances, it was worthwhile to make a lingering product of which consumers were so accustomed become obsolete so that a more advanced alternative could be adopted. The case of QWERTY keyboard best exemplified this argument. Though the more efficient key layout called DVORAK had been developed for a very long time, this invention still was not marketable as users were so used to the QWERTY keyboard that they were unenthusiastic to change their typing habit.
Interestingly, the author related the idea of product obsolescence to careers and professions in our society. He argued that with the dramatic development of technology, there were many jobs that should be obsolete by now but they actually still existed, for instance, firefighter.
When technology could be developed to the point that it can replace human to perform these jobs, the obsolescence of these professions was undoubtedly a good thing and the technology advancement should be celebrated. Paradoxically, many people were opposed to this change as they were afraid of losing their jobs.
The author stressed that their choice now would definitely affect the future of their descendants, so instead of worrying about the job security, they should upgrade themselves by broadening knowledge base, enhancing critical thinking skills and ethical values, creating a good reputation and relationships, and making an outstanding portfolio that tells the story about their personalities, accomplishments, and career goals.
The main idea discussed in this article is very interesting and meaningful to me as before reading this, I never thought of any circumstances in which obsolescence can essentially render positive consequences. In addition, the author’s suggestion regarding upgrading personal skills and abilities to stay ahead of technology is extremely helpful too as I strongly believe that in the very near future, a plethora of jobs in our society will be replaced by robots and automation technology.
When it comes to human development, it is worth pointing out that the role of education would become more crucial than ever before. With human intelligence and the support of existing technology, humans are creating entirely new technologies or slightly upgraded product models every day.
Nonetheless, in the field of education or human development, there has been not much advancement or breakthrough generated over a long period of time. I am wondering what the challenges or obstacles are and if educators can apply the idea of product life cycle in industry to education. That means there would be a time span for post-secondary credentials such as bachelorette’s or master’s degree, so when the credential is expired, people need to go through some sort of formal education again to “upgrade” themselves. This will encourage people keep learning and improving to advance and create “new versions” of themselves in their whole life.
As the author suggested when one’s career was put at risk because of technology, he should keep learning to move on. However, I believe that it would be very difficult, even impossible for people in their 40s or 50s to start learning something new. Therefore, the question I have is how we as educators in particular and the society in general could support these people.
Reference:
Oliveira, R. G. D. (2013). Planned Obsolescence. Leadership and Management in Engineering, 13(4), 262 - 264. Retrieved from http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)LM.1943-5630.0000244
