Planned obsolescence is the business practice of deliberately outdating an item (much before the end of its useful life) by stopping its supply or service support and introducing a newer (often incompatible) model or version. Its objective is to prod the consumer or user to abandon the currently owned item in favor of the ‘upgrade.’  

Americans are trained to want the newest and best, whatever the item. Can you imagine if we purchased 1 refrigerator or 1 car or 1 mattress in our lifetime? It would never happen.

I didn’t realize that my phone, computer and printer were talking to each other. Who knew? But obviously they agreed to either slow down to a crawl or totally not work at all within a two week period. Now that’s not only planned obsolescence, but the epitome of Murphy’s Law.

I really loved my Samsung Note 4! I prolonged it’s life by purchasing a new battery last year when the Verizon salesperson said, “time to get a new phone!” I did complain about his eagerness to suggest replacing instead of fixing the problem. I got my phone a cute new case last month, but the signs were there. My phone decided to reboot itself 12 times in 10 minutes. No time to do research. A new phone was inevitable. I decided on a Google Pixel 2L. And why not? Google has been running my life for years. I use gmail, google maps, google calendar, google analytics, google play store, and now a google phone. I’m being googled to death!

The same week my phone met its demise, I had to order a new computer because my disc drive was nearing the end due to overwork. We all know how that feels, right?  I now have a computer that is faster than a speeding bullet with more USB ports than I can ever use. Of course, migrating all my files and programs from my old to my new computer is, to me, not an easy task.

Yesterday my printer decided not to work at all. I will admit that I overworked that piece of equipment for many years. It was due for the junkyard. By the way, I never realized that it would be more efficient to buy a new printer every time it runs out of ink because the ink cartridges cost more than the printer. Think about that one!

A new phone, a new computer, a new printer, and I forgot to mention, I added a tablet to my stockpile of tech stuff, all within 2 weeks. Will I be more efficient? Who knows, but right now my brain is being overworked trying to sync everything together.

I’m hoping I’m not part of the planned obsolescence program.