Video reflection: Planned Obsolescence

Planned obsolescence: a policy of deliberate planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a period of time.

This concept was, as the video suggested, first put into action in the mass production of light bulbs.

The first light bulb that was invented by Thomas Edison outlasted 1500 hours in illumination, and later designs outlast that number many times more. As longer lasting products are put out into the market, there was a decline of needs in the product, and this is where planned obsolescence was put into play. A Global cartel company pressured lamp manufactures to reduce the bulb life expectancy to 1000 hours. This meant that light bulbs are breaking faster, forcing the consumers to increase regular purchases, and creating a larger demand.

Other method of planned obsolescence was shown in the video with the invention of nylon and production of nylon stockings for ladies. It was a proud achievement for scientists to discover the synthetic material that has many advantages to what was available and the product was proven to be successful and durable. However it was too durable for the company’s liking as demand was declining. Thus it was back to the lab to come up with a design for a more fragile design of nylon, shortening the product life expectancy.

This is an example of planned obsolescence by shortening the functionality of a product lifetime. However as time goes by this method has become insufficient for companies and manufacturers; they wanted products to be consumed faster.

So then thus planned obsolescence was taking a step further, they went from speeding up consumerism by shortening the functionality of a product life time to socially acceptable to discard a product simply because it is not fashionable anymore. The most common example of this can be seen in fashion clothing and mobile phones.

So why is such a wasteful way of life introduced? Planned obsolescence was first proposed in 1932 by Bernard London to end the depression in America. The theory was that by limiting a product’s life spam, it will create a demand for customers to repeat the purchase under a shorter interval of time; creating more job opportunities, increasing sale profits, thus help boost up the country’s economy.

Consumers are consuming at an ever growing rate. With all the products purchased, used, and discarded, where do they all go? “the light bulb conspiracy” addressed this issue by taking a trip to Koma, a third world country in Africa. Although it is illegal to dump waste in these countries, many companies disguise their end of life products as “second hand goods” and “donate” them to these countries as an act of goodness and friendship.

So what can designers do to help end this wasteful cycle of consumerism? Now days, designs are concentrated more to be environmental friendly; this means that we are using materials that are renewable, recycle and non-toxic. Future strategies could include changing our economic systems and values altogether where products that lasts longer, with less toxic footprints are the ones with most value.