Made to Break Analysis Page 186-281

The third part of Made to Break examines the importance of computer technology. The culture of society was changing due to advancements in computer programs and microchips. Products were being produced to include this new technology into toys and entertainment. Children's toys and other games were becoming more electronic. This technology lead way to the first video games. Earlier designs such as the pinball machine became widely popular and as technology improved, better interfaces and graphics were created for new and improved products. Eventually they were able to make these chips and hardware quite small and discrete. Nintendo used this technology to develop the Game Boy which became instantly popular amongst the world wide market. This hand-held device greatly threatened the arcades and home-systems due to its portability quite possibly making them obsolete. More and more new products are created each year and many people will go out and buy the latest technology even if their old system is still working. Slade describes this process as E-waste. Another product that greatly contributes to E-waste is cell phones. Every year so many fully functioning cell phones are discarded just because the consumer wants the newest features and designs. He states "Cell phones have now achieved the dubious distinction of having the shortest life cycle of any electronic consumer product in the country and their life span is still declining." (284). E-waste is quite a major issue. So many electronics are so often forgotten, not due to their lack of functionality, but because they do not contain the new and improved programming introduced on the market. It is expensive to disassemble these products to recover usable parts and some of these electronics are so small that they can easily just be thrown in the trash to be lost in landfills. Overall, with so many new advancements in this field of electronic devices and technology, the old products become obsolete as we as consumers are always searching for the next thing.