What happens next?

I don't write down very much of what goes on in my head, mostly because some might think I was a bit odd at best, but today I am going to make an exception. What's going to happen next. I was just pondering over the rate of change during my lifetime. In my formative years Europe was still recovering from a catastrophic World War. Things stayed pretty much the same as I grew up - I had bench marks for things standards which to judge and measure myself in all aspects of life. Sure some things were progressing at the time, like TV for example but on the whole life was pretty stable from one week to the next.

Today's children though are growing up in an environment where absolutely everything changes at an incredibly fast rate. Big brands come and go everything gets better, faster, smoother, smaller and cheaper overnight with new versions of products being launched hours after the previous ones have been delivered. Many software vendors now have nightly builds that users can down load so they have the latest versions. Products are now built for a shorter lifespan so that consumers can upgrade to the latest version when the original wears out. Everybody is getting used to immediate change. Nothing lasts very long now and so the "make do and mend" attitude that I grew up with is missing.

Several thoughts have followed on from this, not least how much packaging we are now throwing away, but the one that really struck me is how will today's children cope tomorrow if the speed of progress slows down dramatically. Suddenly things will need to last a bit longer than they are capable of - there might not be an improved version just around the corner and what will today's youngsters make of it and how will it affect them?

One thing I see a prevalence towards these days is people not respecting or looking after their tools. We really have grown into a throw away society. One person I know buys new paint brushes each time they need to paint something as the previous ones are left with paint in them to harden. The claim is that it is much easier to buy a new brush than clean the old one. To a point there is some truth in this with extremely cheap and therefore disposable brushes available, but the same attitude is taken with expensive brushes which give a far better finish, improve with age and can last many years if looked after properly. And of course that is the same with many things we have today. Production of disposable items is not good for the planet - it uses a lot of energy and resources to make deliver purchase and dispose of, whereas a well kept better made item will have lasted longer and overall uses less resources. I think its all down to our attitude and I am not sure tomorrows adults will be equipped with the right attitude to live in a make do and mend type of society.

Well a nice big world war might make make that all change like it did the last couple of times.

Posted by Simon at November 30, 2007 9:25 AM

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