What is Wrong with Technology Today?

In today's world it seems that there are constantly commercials and ads on the web talking about the latest, sleekest, most jaw-dropping new technologies. But, the problem is that whatever product you just purchased seems to be outdated within the month. This wouldn't be a problem if everything didn't carry a triple digit price tag. Take for example your cell phone; most people sign up for a contract where you get a phone and a two-year plan. It all seems great, but most people don't even make it to the end of the second year because their phone has either been broken, lost or what more frequently seems to be the case, isn't "modern" enough because a new phone just came out with ten new features. I know this firsthand, my sophomore year I got this seemingly amazing phone from Verizon. It was a camera phone, had internet capabilities and even VCast since it had just come out. I had the most amazing phone out there, but after about a year or so it slowly just kept experiencing more and more problems. Now we have the iPhone where everything has touch capabilities. This is just another example of how far technology has come, and the rate at which it comes.

Another example is the Motorola Razr; when it came out it was all the craze. It came with a $600 price tag with a plan and $800 without. But as most people know, the Razr was a terrible phone, it was prone to frozen screens, "lag" when going through the menus and the battery life was terrible. But, since then more than twelve different versions have come out since 2005. Are consumers really supposed to buy twelve different phones over three years with those kinds of price tags? The answer is no, but for some reason these products still sell. In todays consumer driven environment new technology is at the forefront and todays mass media makes this possible. Consumers have a number of different tools at their disposal to either purchase these new technologies or find information out about them. There are blogs, websites like CNET and Wired, eBay, countless commercials, billboards and online ads to name a few; everything is in your face all the time. In America your social status directly coincides with what you own; how big your flat screen HDTV is, how nice the Nav system is in your car, which of the major gaming platforms you own and even which iPod you have. That list can go on and on and people do not mind one bit, everyone in America wants the newest and the best for themselves and I do not blame them.

With the new Amazon Kindle, people have no need to ever buy a book again; the Kindle has access to over 80,000 titles, it's battery last for two days and guess how long it took to sell out at $400? Five and a half hours is all it took, but that's ok you can get one on eBay, the average selling price right now is only about $500. It seems like yesterday we were still just making the switch from whether to buy the reliable old VHS or go with a DVD. Today's problem is which high definition form of movie you would like to watch; do I go with HD DVD or Blu Ray? There are too many questions out there like this, XBOX 360 or Playstation 3, iPhone or Verizon's Voyager, iPod Touch or Zune, Mac or Windows or the new Macbook Air? I could go on and on all day but it's just not worth it, the point is that there is just so much competition out there these days that the consumer is always going to have a number of choices out there ready and waiting. All I am trying to say is that I do not believe this technology craze will ever end and to be honest I do not have a problem with it. Technology is not just going to stop getting better and better and I believe that people want and deserve the best out there. Oh, I'm sorry I have to run I heard they just came out with the thirteenth version of the Razr and I just have to have it.