Too much computer bullshit in modern appliances. Back in the day appliances were just mostly mechanical. They lasted forever.
While I can attest to the stupidity of some of the IoT implementations in the most unnecessary things, that doesn't quite have much baring on "things lasting long". In fact, electronic components which are now heavily commoditized, and virutally solid-state compared to mechanically functioning items, actually can be made to last longer than said mechanical devices. Mechanical devices have more points of failure (case and point being something like hard drives versus solid state drives). Less moving parts, less failure prone.
Also, the failure rates of many mainstream cost-optimized devices is one-part the fault of demand (tell me how many people you know who would be willing to buy an iPhone that lasts 10+ years, but also willing to pay something like $5,000 for it). Considerations for items lasting long are almost completely ignored in the mainstream sector of products. The second problem, is you have planned and intrinsic obsolescence (after the Industrial Revolution, economists along with businesses realized, supply has forever planted itself above demand, and we can never go back). In order for a company to sell something like a $500 computer-like phone (in functionality), and also turn a profit while competing with other companies, they need to control exactly how long a device lasts (before, this entailed using inferior materials that were known to degrade at a certain point, requiring users to repair the device at the company's repair centers). This level of earning wasn't enough, so they started making devices that would fail catastrophically and need complete replacement. Now you have software and firmware driven expiration dates further compounding the issue (Apple being one such company that all others can only dream of, with their near-complete grip over the complete operation from distribution, to manufacturing, to hardware and software controls).
People can make devices last longer than any of the bygone era devices we look back with nostalgia thinking they were devices that can never be surpassed in terms of durability. Our material sciences and engineering prowess has exploded that would make surpassing those older devices trivial. It's simply that in order to be a manufacturer these days, you have to compete on a global level, and if you're competing on a global level, you have to implement cost-savings for fiduciary responsibility of shareholders. And if a single company that's competing in the same industry as you does something like create devices that purposefully fail at a certain date to make people buy newer devices - you either must follow suit, or you'll be surpassed.
Computers may be the worst thing that ever happened. They're making us all dumber. People walk around looking at their phone all day.
I don't get it.. Access to information in a packaged and quickly absorbable form is precisely the sort of psychological predisposition we have as living sentient creatures.
Silly notion, it would be like cavemen complaining about hammers being the worst thing ever, because using rocks required more skill to master nailing nails to a board. Computers have shifted learning priorities, letting people focus on things that they want to persue. It would be like saying "computers made us dumber, we should have stayed in jungles and plains, at least there we had things that made us smarter, like learning how to make a fire, or hunt animals ourselves, instead of being in air conditioned homes that make us lazier and fatter". Looking at a phone all day seems like something a normal person would do if given the option. People on public transportation for example today would be odd if they found more pleasure in staring at the walls of the vehicle compared to someone entertaining themselves with a phone, or getting some work done/prepared.
I'm really not sure how people are getting dumber looking at their phones (if anything, they're getting smarter). Or do you posit that walking around looking at the sky and road to work every single day is more productive and mentally constructive?
We don't remember phone #'s anymore because they're all on the speed-dial list
Yeah, who would naturally care to recall phone numbers of people when there are speed dial lists? It would be like saying "We don't remember how to cook food consistently anymore, it's all measured and written as notes on a piece of paper instead now". How does that make it a bad thing exactly? Because our memory isn't being trained or something? Who would want to train their memory with phone numbers anyway? What value is there to this?
We don't know how we're getting to where we're driving because we're using GPS instead of looking at a map.
This example is even worse. I fail completely to see what the problem is here? You'd have to be insane not to prefer GPS (better in virtually every single way when available). GPS makes use of maps, and if anything with the way GPS functions now, it's far more up-to-date than any printed map could be..
We don't do math anymore the calculator does it for us.
Why would anyone waste their time trying to manually long-divide things for example? Again, I'm failing to see what exactly is the problem here. I'd understand if you said, we should at least know how to do certain math operations in case we don't have calculators in a certain area. But to not use calculators when they're at your disposal, this seems like an insane notion especially concerning more complex operations that require half a page or more to solve for..
Or were you talking about children that don't know how to multiply single digit integers? Because if it's that, I don't know what school would allow calculators for such basic required knowledge.
I don't get it..
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