Nowadays, it seems that technology from over thirty years ago is holding up better than even the most advanced and up to date technology of today. From the latest smartphone to the newest luxury car, everything appears to break in a split second. This unreliability can be attributed to one main culprit; a severe lack of repairability, which has been increasing more and more over the years. So, why is this the case?
One reason behind the decline of repairability is people’s obsession with sleek and stylish devices. Consumers are made to believe that technology is a fashion statement, which strays away from the purposeful build that computers and the like used to have. This shallow mindset leads to manufacturers skimping out on build quality and materials, thereby leading to a decrease in the ability to fix tech products. Even the spare parts to repair a piece of technology are decreasing in quality, so whatever is repaired probably won’t last very long anyways.
Furthermore, major technology companies are beginning to plan the obsolescence of their devices when they intentionally make their products fail. This is very common in the automotive and computer industry, with companies like General Motors and Apple being the worst offenders. They typically design most of their products to fail after around four to five years, and weld/glue parts together to discourage D.I.Y repairs. This is meant to increase sales for the company by making the original product seem “broken,” even though they are one simple repair away from being perfectly usable. A prime example of this is the modern Apple Macbook, which has a completely unrepairable keyboard that, conveniently, breaks really easily.
As technology moves forward, the right to repair that consumers have is becoming rare. Few things now are more reliable and repairable than the products made only twenty to thirty years ago. This loss of the right to repair is because of the demand for slim and sleek devices and planned obsolescence, which are both used by companies as predatory tactics to make their products last a shorter time than they potentially could. So, we need to act soon, or this right may just be gone forever.
Be First to Comment