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Trapped in an upgrade cycle whether we like it or not
Many of us are familiar with "planned obsolescence," the idea that our devices are designed to become useless long before they break down or stop functioning, forcing us to upgrade whether we want to or not.
But where did this idea come from, and does it have any benefits?
Jonathan Sterne, a professor of communications studies at McGill University, traces planned obsolescence back to the late Victorian fashion industry.
"Advertising became more important. Brands started to exist. And fashion started moving at a faster pace. Fashion has existed forever. But fashion as sort of a mass interest came with mass newspapers, mass magazines and also advances in printing technology, especially chromolithography and stuff like that, where you can have colour pictures and magazines," he told Spark host Nora Young.
From there the idea took hold in the burgeoning automobile industry, he said. But the concept really took off in the post-war manufacturing boom.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/the-vices-and-virtues-of-planned-obsolescence-1.5917265