Tuesday 23 June 2015

Obsolescence, not expiry

Cupboard clearing continues. Despite a thorough clearout some weeks ago, a second going over has revealed that many items haven't been looked at in years and will certainly not be used in the future. And so another shelf or three has become available. This is only the tip of the iceberg, as it is a general storage cupboard. There is still a long way to go - linen cupboard, clothes cupboard, kitchen utensil cupboard and a vast collection of video cassettes of the F1 Grand Prix and 500cc bike racing from the 80s. We have the race in which Ayrton Senna died, Wayne Gardener's incredihle performances on Philip Island, daredevil riding by Dunlop, Hislop, Fogarty at the Isle of Man TTs. Somehow it would be like throwing out those achievements if we chucked them, but will we ever look at them again? We still have the video machine.
An expensive state-of-the-art video camera lies unused (the screen has snuffed it) and any video we want to take can be done with our little cell phones, with apparently the same or even better clarity. An old TV, as deep as it is wide, works perfectly, but has been replaced with flat screen technology.
This is the age of consumerism, where technology outpaces the life of the products, and marketing teams work round the clock to sell the latest goods before the next generation arrives on the shelves. Obsolescence is the order of the day, not expiry.
Will everything end up on a vast, Everest-like tip of technological trade-ins?

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