Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. From about 1924, it started to sneak into people's life and quite literally changed people’s lives.
People have been talking about whether planned obsolescence is good for their lives or not through the ages. All they focus on are the cost to posterity and the necessity of planned obsolescence. So, I will analyse these problems in the following ways.
From the point of economy, it is a clever way for merchants to seek more benefits. They make products constantly updated and reduce the service life of parts. However, this practice increases the economical burden on buyers at the same time.
From the point of technology, planned obsolescence promotes technological innovation and leads people enter the era of technology. On the other hand, the manufacturers who are driven by interests will reduce the technical content of the products and deceive consumers.
From the point of society, planned obsolescence brings more colorful lifestyles to people and gives people more opportunities of enjoyment. Nonetheless, there can also be significant harm to society in the form of negative externalities that products creates more waste and pollution, uses more natural resources, and results in more consumer spending.
Although planned obsolescence has many drawbacks, I think the cost to posterity is not too much and we definitely need it for our future economies and technologies to grow. Because it is an important bridge which connects the past with the future.