My partner has recently started talking about getting herself a new Macbook, and considering that there are already 4 in this household, it got me thinking about the desire for the latest and greatest in tech.
Of course not everyone has a soft spot for technology, and a lot of us would prefer to hold onto our hard earned cash as tightly as possible. I personally purchased my computer (a laptop) when I was 15, and managed to last another 10 years before finally giving in and upgrading. Sure I missed out on having wireless access for a decade, but I certainly appreciate that I have it now. For better or worse, improved iterations of most technological products seem to come out every single year. This means a lot of us can’t help but feel that desire to have the most recent model.
A lot of the time, ignorance can be bliss. If you aren’t aware or don’t think about the fact that there are more recent and superior versions of our gadgets available, it’s unlikely that we will give the matter too much thought. This is of course what companies are banking on with advertising. With the connected world that we live in today, it is often impossible to escape the media frenzy associated with particular product launches.
Of course the world would be significantly held back if we all lived by the old adage “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”, but it can definitely be frustrating when we make such a significant investment in the latest shiny new gadget, only to find that it is considered dated a year or two down the line!
Technology is clearly a rapidly developing area. Have you heard of Moore’s law? He observed that since the creation of the integrated circuit, the amount of transistors per square inch had doubled every year. The law itself was slightly adjusted over the years, but it has been found to be very relevant even to this day in areas such as computing power, digital storage space, and the physical size of certain components.
My partner is currently looking into what the current laptops on offer have, and even what the laptops that haven’t yet been released may have, so I now know that I could have a screen with much higher resolution, a battery that lasts far longer, much more storage space, and of course a far quicker laptop.
These are luxuries of course, but they will make a strange kind of sense to a lot of minds out there. Everyone at some point or another will wish to have the best of something. The key is definitely finding the right balance between being happy with what we have, upgrading due to necessity only, and indulging in the occasional luxury item.
Do you like to hang on to your existing technology as long as possible? Or do you prefer to upgrade when the new model is available? Please let us know in the comments below.
Image Credit: byronv2