Pg’s 1-81 of the book “Made to Break” written by Giles Slade covers the first 3 chapters of the book. Chapter 1 discusses the idea of repetitive consumption and how this is achieved in American society. There are a lot of brilliant ideas on how it was achieved in the past and how I can see it still being achieved in today’s technological reliant society in America. The first idea that chapter 1 discusses is the idea of branding and packaging both of which are still very apparent in today’s society. Businesses began marking their product with a distinct brand and packing their product in fancy packaging. I know that in today’s society brand for a lot of people means everything along with the nice packing that it will sometimes comes in. This is American’s mentality for always wanting the best. The next idea that was talked about I found to be the most brilliant of the chapter which was the idea of a disposable culture. This forces consumers for products to constantly be throwing their products away and buying new ones. The book quotes on pg. 13 “…demand seemed endless”. This is absolutely true; this creates an endless demand for these products such as disposable razors which they discuss in the book and also repetitive consumption which is the producer’s goal. The part of this idea that is so crazy to me is that when you examine our culture today you can see how far we have come. You look at so many different household things like Clorox wipes, paper towels, disposable razors, and so many more.
In chapter 2 it talks about psychological obsolescence versus technological obsolescence. A really interesting quote that I pulled from chapter 2 goes as follows, “psychological obsolescence was superior to technological obsolescence because it was considerably cheaper to create” (pg. 36). This portrays the American business sense perfectly because this is basically saying that business owners modify products in the cheapest way to renew demand for what is almost the same product. The example that this made me think of in our culture today is I-pods. Apple continues to come out with all of these new I-pods that look different and are more attractive to the eye when in reality they do the exact same things. People are always craving the most up to date products when it comes to technology. The book discusses cars and another quote from chapter 2 states “…as a characteristic of the very best luxury cars of the day” (Pg.43). Car makers are constantly coming out with new luxury editions to basically say to their buyer that their current car is out of date and not as good as what the latest edition is, and this goes with any technology. This brings into play product addiction which chapter 2 also discusses. The definition of addiction is to form a habit and be dependent on something; in this case it is technology. As a culture we have always been addicted to technology because we depend on it. If you look at today’s culture with computers you can see how dependant we have become on it and it is almost scary. There is no doubt in my mind that product addiction is still present today and will always be present, and if anything the addiction will only get stronger.
Chapter 3 discusses briefly the idea of advertising in American culture and also the idea of progressive obsolesce which is continuously buying products for up to datedness’. This chapter is based off ideas that are formed in the great depression. Progressive obsolescence was designed to stimulate the economy. The idea that I found most interesting in this chapter is the idea of adulteration. This is the idea of diluting a product in order to make more money. This was present during the great depression and is not necessarily present today but the mind set is certainly present in today’s culture. This shows that people will literally do anything for money and a lot of people in our culture are extremely greedy. The mentality of making money in our culture overrides just about anything and for a lot of people it is their number one priority. The idea of death dating is also very interesting to me. I pulled a quote from chapter 3 that goes as follows “upon roads that fall into immediate decay, upon motors that must be junked in a few years…” (pg. 78). This quote is basically saying that if we continue to make technology and keep buying new technology because it breaks that we will eventually end up with mass amounts of waist. Death dating is deadly for our country in my opinion and should be illegal. As I try to make out the future I can certainly see America completely destroyed by technology. I believe that people really stray away from the beauty of the earth because of technology. I find it funny that computers and the internet display all of these beautiful pictures of our earth when in reality technology is in the process of destroying all of the beauties of the earth. I believe that in the future we won’t have access to the beautiful physical features of the earth; we will only be able to view them in our virtual worlds.
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