The ultimate “progress” on this century has been the progressive increase of velocity on the development of new technologies. ¿What are the consequences of this? ¿Is there a point when technologies became useless, dissociated from their primary purpose? ¿Are we slaves of consumerism?
My thesis is that in the last time (10-20 years) a really thin line has emerged between the situations of “using technology for your own purposes” and “letting technology use you for the higher purposes behind it”.
I think that the main arguments to support this thesis are: First, the huge evidence of the emergence of “disposable” technologies. Second, the need of faster production cycles which is satisfied by the implement of this type of technology. And finally, the illusion of relief brought by technology on working duties, which really are only more ways to make you more functional, productive and profitable.
50 years ago, people used to buy things for their quality and their long life. Today, the main reasons to buy things are the ones purposed by the media: Popularity, luxury, their extent to grab attention, their suitability with stereotypical role models, etc. And most technological devices last no more than a year or two, and become “obsolete” compared to the newest ones in less than 6 months. So, I think that this new kind of technologies could be called “disposable technologies” because of their inability to stay current in time. Extreme examples of this are the MAC “iphones” or any kind of laptop you can buy today. Iphones for instance changed from 3G (3rd generation) to 4G (4th generation) in less than a year, and made almost mandatory for their consumerist users to buy the new device and pay more expensive cell phone plans for them. And most of them did. There was even a “wake up night” event here in Chile to wait for the new equip to come out, almost like Christians waiting for the white smoke to announce that a new pope has been chosen.
Of course, this nonsense has a reason to be. The improvement of technologies in a capitalist economic system equals to enhancement of the production cycles. And at the same time, the motivation to advance in technological terms comes from the desperate need of making those cycles go faster. It’s a vicious cycle, a dialectical relation between technology and capital. ¿Do you think that this means “progress” for mankind? You’re far away from the truth then. It is not a common global goal that we’re achieving. It’s the depredation spree led by of a small group of people whose only objective is to make more money. Nothing else!
There’s a clearance to make. I’m not saying that ALL technology is useless. There`s plenty of it that can really draw out a lot of weight off our shoulders… Laptops for example are one of the most amazing tools of this century. Having almost everything you need to work or to entertain yourself with you at all times is a real pleasure. However, if you use them to work (like most people do) the “uses” you can get out of them aren’t really YOURS. All the time you gain with it by having the chance to do your working tasks much faster is just more money for your employer! (If you work independently, I may congratulate you, you’re one step closer to freedom!). There`s a twisted reason to pay salaries based of working hours and not based on “finished tasks”. No employer could get profit from your improved productivity that way. And today, clearly we DO have the technology (as paradoxical as it may sound) to implement that kind of working logic. So don’t think that technology is releasing you from work, is just making you work a lot more.
My conclusion is that the only way to survive this depredatory way of life is to try, as hard as it is, to use the technology for your own objectives, hopefully being an independent worker, at least 1 mile away from big sized companies. There`s a lot of technology that’s really useful, you just have to be on the ball and don’t let anyone steal the uses you’re getting out of them.
