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Because the GD doesn't have time for this posted there.


I was walking down the icy road with my IPod and it glitched on me. I’m not an overly technical girl and before absolute rage began to set in I had the thought of, “Well these things do happen.” Three seconds later as my cover art started to dissolve into rainbow tortured pixels I revoked that thought. Why do these things happen when I’m paying top dollar for that bit of hardware? I’m talking about planned obsolescence.

Companies don’t trust that their customers are going to upgrade or stay loyal, so they unleash infuriating ploys to force us into paying more money. Our IPods break in less than two years, which is barely enough time to fill those forty gigs that we were promised. All our computer programs become incompatible with new ones, which means, if we’re still typing away in Microsoft Word 98, then we’re screwed if we want to transport our work onto another computer. The file won’t open – but our wallets better. Or just when we get the latest and greatest X-box, the 360 comes out and tromps that dream, too, because the 360 does everything and more. Good luck finding interesting games for your original after that point. We’re forced like rats through a maze and we really have no control as a consumer. We let companies scam us, despite the fact that they have the ability to create reliable long lasting systems for us.

I’m getting tired. This is my second IPod. I’m typing on my third computer in six years. We just bought a new system because everything we used to have is falling apart at the plastic screws. Society should be fed up, but we’re spoon shoveling it back in. To a certain degree we have control over our market, but no one seems to be exacting it. We simply go with the flow, and while radical new updates are fantastic, needless ones that send a grand to waste – are not. Programmers are literally making our devices break down every two years or less and getting away with it.

I like Apple, I think that they are a good company with some really sleek ideas, but the fact of the matter is, that they are notorious for taking every last cent we have. They created ITunes so that all our files would be converted into neat packages for transporting onto the MP3. What may of us did not know at the time, is that, it’s a total b***h to get them back to regular format. So again, you’re forced, like a little rat, to by more Apple products, because no other systems will take your songs at that point. It’s the pits. And we’re falling each time.

I’d like to ask society what we can do about this? How do we stop planned obsolescence, or is it a simple matter of asking? Honestly, what do you think about it? Because to me, it always seems like I’m always lagging a year behind and totally broke.