Is New Tech Better Than Olde Tech?

Everyone gets excited by the new toys when they come out and lord knows we are as guilty as any when it comes to tech cravings but is newer always better?

The answer is yes. End of article. Thank you for reading.

Ok, maybe there are some exceptions... and maybe the exceptions are more the rule.

Did you know that the Ford Model T got 22 miles per gallon back in 1908? Did you know that 22 miles per gallon is the average consumption for cars in 2009? Progess?

Everyone went gaga over the iPhone 4 but if you switched the chronology of the designs for the 3GS and the 4G so that the 3GS were the newest design, you might be just as excited. It's much more ergonomic, sleeker, gets what appears to be the same reception as 4g for most customers and doesn't have an external antenna that gets shorted by contact with the human hand. Sure, it doesn't have the wifi-only Facetime and double dooby-do cameras, but all of this tech is designed for a network that will exist in a few years when your phone is obsolete or broken.

Is classic design really to be left to antiques dealers or are we technically proficient enough to resurrect and keep using old tyme products indefintely? Change is the driving factor for Design, not improvement. Need more examples?

How about TV? For years we heard about how Plasma and LCD was such a huge improvement over CRT screens. This is sort of true in HD but for most lower rez content a CRT is STILL better. Harder on the eyes, certainly, but tubes recreate a softer, more viewable picture. Pixelation is something we have learned to live with because we like thinner, smaller footprint electronics, but it is a suspension of disbelief.

Analog vs. Digital audio. Oh boy, what a great topic... it comes up from time to time around here and often leaves people panting and frothing over pros and cons and whether we can tell the difference but honestly, can you really complain about the sound of a record? You can't put it in a portable device and ruin your hearing everywhere you go, but if you are willing to sit still for a while and just listen, vinyl can't be beat.

Even farming suffers from problems of efficiency vs. quality. When was the last time you had a truly great pear? Was it produced organically or what we call "conventionally", if you can believe the term usage?

Unplggd is a place where we celebrate the integration of tech and our lives but there is no defined formula for how that should be done. How have you balanced it in your lives? Any stand out stories of how your 80's boombox is still booming or your Razr flip phone is alive and kicking?

Comments (8)

Ford's "Model T Facts" state that the Model T only got 13-21 mpg. Also, it was only 1200 lbs and had a top speed of 30mph. Not really comparable.

Thanks for the correction;)
I submit that weight and other specs are relevent to their times and can therefore be compared quite readily to our current situation- they same way we adjust for inflation in financial discussions. We have to travel much faster because we decided, on a mass scale, that it was desirable to do so. Our MPG remained basically the same because it was not important to change it.

It really depends. My old Kenwood and Pioneer integrated amplifiers sound way better than anything you can buy new these days particularly for the money. This is also the same for kitchen appliances. They don't always seem to be better just because they're newer.

I will say just about everything new feels like it's designed with a limited lifespan compared to products of yesteryear. I swear BMW's last 5 years and then fall apart. My fathers 1931 Buick starts every time when it was driven regularly. Apples and oranges maybe...

cheers

I have a very simple philosophy: I keep stuff as long as they work. So I still have my old iPod from 2005, and a brand new ipad.

I'm perfectly happy just like that, not wondering if newer will be better, just wondering if the tech I own provides what I need.

I think my Razr had a hump to get over at two years. The battery started wearing out and the new battery would run down fast, no matter how long I charged it. For some reason the SIM card would go out or the phone just wouldn't accept calls (which was fixed by jiggling the SIM card). But after that whole "your phone's two years old and you can get a newer, shinier one from ATT for free" phase was over, it began working perfectly again. Not to mention those sturdy metal parts are aging mighty well.

I can certainly relate to this article. I have a Razr still, and it works fine. I listen to records on a 60's cabinet style player and it sounds great (actually gave away my cd player). I found a never used 1953 Hotpoint electric stove on Craigslist and besides being a great overall stove it can probably withstand a hand grenade going off in the oven. I also drive a 63' AMC Rambler that gets about 27 MPG give or take.

I completely agree with some of the other commenters here, many of todays goods are produced with an expiration in mind.

Ansela-
I hope I can get a shorter comment next time from you, it will make it much easier to respond to. I think you are taking my post a little too seriously. Just as an example, I even said that people may not be able to tell the difference between analog and digital. I used very "soft" terms because I was not making a statistical comparison here- this is about feeling, practicality, and not buying into marketing pressure. You have firmed up my loose and mostly inconclusive descriptions and then argued against your imagined conclusions.

You should probably also double check the definition of the word "sleek"

I can tell from the other comments that my point is not missed by the majority of people here.

Here is some of the excellent commentary that caught what I was saying:

"It really depends... I will say just about everything new feels like it's designed with a limited lifespan compared to products of yesteryear."

"I have a very simple philosophy: I keep stuff as long as they work."

"I also have my old iPod Video that a year ago I upgradded the hard drive to 240gigs and replaced the battery with one that provides even more power than the original."

"Not to mention those sturdy metal parts are aging mighty well."

"I found a never used 1953 Hotpoint electric stove on Craigslist and besides being a great overall stove it can probably withstand a hand grenade going off in the oven."

Thanks, everyone:)