Made To Break: Critical Analysis (p. 1-81)

"Made to Break" by Giles Slade is a fascinating read if you're "techno-curious" and how the business side of technology functions. This book is the perfect explanation on how each tech company are producing their products, but most of all, how obsolescence is business; "Once it is used and thrown away, 'the customer keeps coming back for more'" (p. 16). Much of the first half of the book historically defines how technology economically effected business in America and how computers, automobiles, and many of the important machines have formed the obsolescent society we live in today.

Briefly, Slade goes into the early stages of an obsolescent society. It seems as if it all started out with the development of name brands, packaging, designs of the products we use everyday, and then expanded to more luxury type products that became obsolete, such as the computer. I found it interesting that it was an industrial economy, the World Wars, and women in general were major factors in creating obsolescence. For example, "As wrist watches came into fashion near the end of World War I, pocket watches became obsolete" (p. 15), the demand for sharp razors, condoms and Kleenex tissues are just a few early products that were constantly replaced and formed obsolescence. Later on, it is introduced by Dalby that automobiles took obsolescence to the next stage. Henry Ford introduced the Model T as the first automobile to become obsolete as a result of "mechanical quality now more or less given, people became interested in sophisticated design and presentation, especially those Americans who had been exposed to European culture during World War I" (p. 37). Because of the Model T's bumpy rides, noisy and smelly quality, competitors such as Chrysler came into play, and women specifically designed cars came out into the market.

Later on in the first third of the book, Slade continues to narrate the growth and development of obsolescence, mainly focusing on the how it all started. Between the 1920s and 30s (Depression era), a more in depth type of obsolescence was invented that explained why "so much of the world was in transition, new things constantly replaced by old ones and so many old values were coming into conflict with new ones" (p. 62). This trend made obsolescence so powerful that it was involved with "everyday lives, ordinary people were becoming familiar with the need to discard not just consumer goods but ideas and habits" (p. 62). Moreover, I found it interesting obsolescence as a whole (not just progressive or planned), had even created a new profession, consumer engineering. Because American culture was changing the way we shop, dress, and the way we function using technology, obsolescence allowed companies to study it and take advantage of it. Ironically, Slade incorporates the Technocracy that Neil Postman writes on. Obsolescence became the definition of a growing Technocracy. From new demands for slicker designs, better efficiency, and products to constantly replace the worn out ones, obsolescence invented the Technocracy as a Technocracy depends on obsolescence.