3 ms·
It seems like we're moving out of the 1900s world where manufactured objects carried inherent value on their own and people paid high prices to retain control o
by exporectomy 5y ago
It seems like we're moving out of the 1900s world where manufactured objects carried inherent value on their own and people paid high prices to retain control of the valuable object. People even passed furniture, dishes, books, and clothes down from generation to generation because they were so valuable but now you can't even give this stuff away most of the time. TVs don't get stolen much anymore because they're worth so little. Physical things are getting cheaper to a ridiculous extent and are being merged with services. That world of industrialized materialism might have been an aberration historically. I still encounter old people, myself included who have an aversion to destroying books, electronics, toys, etc. no matter how cheap and useless they are.
- grishka 5y agoThe problem is, the devices themselves do have inherent value. The manufacturers literally spend extra effort to nerf that value to make sure your continued use of the device is one way or another dependent on them. The iPhone is a very capable general-purpose pocket computer that was turned into an appliance that Apple controls remotely.
- PostThisTooFast 5y agoTurned into a gimped toy, largely. Apple's fear and lack of vision have crippled 10 years of handheld Unix computers. It's pathetic.
- sirsinsalot 5y agoExactly this. Business follows profit over end user benefit. When everyone is doing it, the choice to "own" gets smaller and our perception of ownership degrades. Look at Tesla nuking features in the 2nd hand market.