Enshitification and planned obsolescence
Discussion
I get what you are saying but I replaced a desktop pc which was 10 years old and the new one is so much better.
I’d been putting it off because I thought getting all my stuff to work on it would be a pia but it was easy.
I do also have a 13 year old car I don’t plan to change as I think anything new will be worse and cost me a load of money.
I’d been putting it off because I thought getting all my stuff to work on it would be a pia but it was easy.
I do also have a 13 year old car I don’t plan to change as I think anything new will be worse and cost me a load of money.
Most tech stuff - yes.
I bought a thinkpad in 2017. Cost me £1500. It was great. Replaced it recently, cost me £1500. Seems just as solid, obviously much faster.
Ink tank printers. These are miles better than old cartridge printers.
Mechanical stuff? No I don t think so.
We have a fridge in our kitchen that we bought in 2004. Never gone wrong. We re onto our third fridge in the utility room since 2007. Dishwasher seems to need replaced every 3 years. Same with washing machine. We ve tried buying good ones and they don t seem any better so now we just buy cheap basic ones and treat them as disposable.
I bought a thinkpad in 2017. Cost me £1500. It was great. Replaced it recently, cost me £1500. Seems just as solid, obviously much faster.
Ink tank printers. These are miles better than old cartridge printers.
Mechanical stuff? No I don t think so.
We have a fridge in our kitchen that we bought in 2004. Never gone wrong. We re onto our third fridge in the utility room since 2007. Dishwasher seems to need replaced every 3 years. Same with washing machine. We ve tried buying good ones and they don t seem any better so now we just buy cheap basic ones and treat them as disposable.
Edited by Lefty on Friday 7th August 07:53
Off the top of my head; The internet, camera, TV, Mac, planes, food (except Wagon Wheels, obviously), DIY power tools, trains..... actually it's difficult to think of any product that is worse in its current form than in the past.
A more interesting category is things that are unquestionably better but precisely because they are better are worse. I'd put cars in this category and despite me mentioning cameras, there is sometimes greater pleasure to be had in the more raw outputs of film.
A more interesting category is things that are unquestionably better but precisely because they are better are worse. I'd put cars in this category and despite me mentioning cameras, there is sometimes greater pleasure to be had in the more raw outputs of film.
Lefty said:
We have a fridge in our kitchen that we bought in 2004. Never gone wrong. We re onto our third fridge in the utility room since 2007. Dishwasher seems to need replaced every 3 years. Same with washing machine. We ve tried buying good ones and they don t seem any better so now we just buy cheap basic ones and treat them as disposable.
I got my hotpoint fridge for free 10 years ago for helping somebody move house (I had a van), I don't know how old it was when I got it, that fridge is a little noisy sometimes but I have ice cold milk on my weetabix every morning.Yet, just like you, I have to buy a new washing machine every three years. Even the AO rep trying to sell me insurance commented that he can see I only get three years out of my last three machines. So I buy the £300 one each time.
Packaging is a lot worse than it used to, I never used to need scissors to open a pack of effing biscuits because not only are thry smaller, less in a pack etc the packaging js bloody shrinkwrapped on to save yet more money
If you ever need to return something itvis nearly impossible to repack it the same way.
Modern bottle tops are an utter pain in the arse. Glass was better abd recyclable.
Gaming was about finished product that cost 40 quid, not a half finished game you can charge 150 for over 4 years instead by selling endless dlc and maps for.
I do not need to be told when to turn my windscreen wipers on, or turn my lights on, or that I am on a white sodding line.
Etc, etc
If you ever need to return something itvis nearly impossible to repack it the same way.
Modern bottle tops are an utter pain in the arse. Glass was better abd recyclable.
Gaming was about finished product that cost 40 quid, not a half finished game you can charge 150 for over 4 years instead by selling endless dlc and maps for.
I do not need to be told when to turn my windscreen wipers on, or turn my lights on, or that I am on a white sodding line.
Etc, etc
Everything has got cheaper these days, mainly due to the bare minimum of materials being used to save a few pence per item.
Microsoft bloat over time means my current workstation (i7 with 32GB of RAM) has slowed down noticeably since it was bought new a couple of years back.
trickywoo said:
I get what you are saying but I replaced a desktop pc which was 10 years old and the new one is so much better.
How much of that is due to the newer hardware? unless you've upgraded from spinning drives to solid state then the changes over the past decade for PC hardware has been incremental compared with a decade ago compared with the decade before.Microsoft bloat over time means my current workstation (i7 with 32GB of RAM) has slowed down noticeably since it was bought new a couple of years back.
markymarkthree said:
My wife. A far better version of "wife" than i have had before and this one is a keeper. 
Yeah, im still operating wife 1.0, seems to work well, there are newer ones out there but I've heard they can be a tad 'buggy' and one i looked at seemed to need solid gold contacts. I've tried a couple off add ons with mine but they stopped working after a while, basic incompatibility I guess. If you pay like for like in real terms, I'm not convinced engineering quality has universally dropped. What's changed for most products is that the bottom end of the market has shifted downwards both in terms of price and quality.
Or to put it another way, what we used to call a "budget" product is now called "midrange" but it's still roughly the same real-terms price and quality as it was when we used to call it "budget".
Or to put it another way, what we used to call a "budget" product is now called "midrange" but it's still roughly the same real-terms price and quality as it was when we used to call it "budget".
Edited by kambites on Friday 7th August 11:44
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