My usual disclaimer before I start this month’s article. First of all, I am just as guilty as anyone else on this one….
The other day, I was watching “A Christmas Story” with my daughter (yes – I know, it’s a wee bit early for Christmas movies but we are Christmas junkies - we can’t help it). The scene near the beginning shows Ralphie with his nose pressed against the department store window, marveling at the Red Rider rifle on display. “Kids”, I snorted to myself with no small amount of disdain.
The next morning, I’m going to work and walk past the local electronics store and my pace slows, and then stops. Here I am, Rick/Ralphie admiring the bevy of shiny electronics/the Red Rider Rifle.
The more things change – the more they stay the same.
It then dawned on me that I’m not the only one; this love of the shiny new electronic devices isn’t isolated to me, my gender or even my generation. My daughter constantly complains about how “uncool” her cell phone is now; to the extent that she was considering asking for that to be her main Christmas present, although there’s nothing wrong with her existing one.
This article could have easily been entitled “The Modern Age Lure of the Sirens”. In Greek mythology, the sirens were the prophets that lured mariners with their looks and their sounds of music. They would entice and enthrall the sailors, beckoning them to the sharp and deadly rocks to which the sailors were oblivious and totally doomed to smash upon.
The more things change – the more they stay the same.
As evidenced by my fascination with the latest and greatest, I know that I’m as much to blame as everyone else, but sometimes I think that we need to take a step back and think to ourselves, “This new electronic device that I’m considering, is it a NEED or a WANT?” I think that a good portion of the time, it ends up being a want.
I’m scared to think of how many people have bought a Blackberry just because of the cool factor when perhaps it wasn’t necessary. Not that I’m picking on Blackberry, I think that cell phones in general are quite prone to this phenomenon. There was actually a marketing campaign a little while ago where the vendor’s sale pitch was “when you fall out of love with your old phone”.
From strictly a business perspective, this marketing of new and shiny makes a whole lot of sense. Much as the case with planned obsolescence, if we as consumers hold on to our electronics for years upon years, then as the market becomes more mature and increasingly saturated, then sales will plummet. Unless the corporate world can innovate to the extent that we are forced to upgrade and/or replace, then they will do whatever they can to convince us that the new shiny is better than the old scuffed.
Honestly, I’m just as prone to this as anyone else. When I discovered that my (old) cell phone didn’t take too kindly to be being left in a puddle of water overnight, I was faced with the decision of “what do I replace it with”. Sniffing around Bell Mobility, I could have gone cheaper, gone simpler, but the lure of the sirens was just way too much for me. Besides, I’m quite enjoying my new smart phone. However, I’ll be the first to admit that it has a ton of apps and features on it that I probably will never use.
Maybe I’ll eventually learn how to load MP3s on it so that it can act as a replacement for my crappy old iPod that I’m resorting to using as I’ve misplaced my iPod touch. I know that I’ve accidently taken many pictures of myself with my phone’s front-facing camera. I am currently resisting the thought of a NEW iPod touch (4th gen)…for now…but I can’t promise that I won’t be blogging about how cool my new iPod Touch is in the near future.
