Do you really need an E-Book Reader, a PDA or even a “Smart” Phone? I doubt it.
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Many of our perceived needs that we believe we could not possible do without are just that, perceived. They are, in fact, but wants that the advertising industry has us believe we need and cannot do without.
When we look at the E-Book Reader which, in the second decade of the twenty-first century has become the rage, the question I ask, among others, is with regards to sustainability and need.
Is the E-Reader, of whatever brand, better than the printed book by way of cost, first of all, and the answer must be, I should guess, a firm no. For the price of a Kindle, for instance, and even for the most basic model, you can buy a fair number of paperback books and even hardbacks which you could pass on to others to read when you have finished with them and you do not wish to keep them. You cannot, however, legally, do that with most purchased E-Books.
While the latter sounds absolutely stupid, I know, as you have, after all, paid for the books that you have bought and downloaded, but, as the case with Amazon erasing books on people's devices some while back shows, they think that they own the books even though you have paid for them. The clause states that the books are “not transferable.”
The “Personal Digital Assistant” (PDA) or Pocket PC: do you really need one? Is it not just a glorified notepad which is slower than pen and paper – much slower in most cases – anyway? As far as I am concerned it is and the PDA and Pocket PC is just another gadget that I, and most, if not indeed all, of us can do well without. Pen and paper are by far much more reliable, are barely affected by temperature shifts and changes and do not need batteries, among other things.
I did have a PDA a fair number of years back – yes, I feel for the gadget appeal – but found it to be unreliable, unreadable in bright light conditions, and in the end the operating system failed and the battery causing crashed and loss of data. The final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was when at one of those occasions when synchronizing instead of replacing the backup data, etc. to the PDA it reversed the process and wiped the backup on the PC. As luck would have it, though, I had created a backup of the backup so most of the data was safe. Since that time I have reverted back to pen and paper.
Pen, or even pencil, and paper, require no operating system bar your hand, need no electrical power source, and my notepad or notebook can be run over by a Challenger or Abrahams MBT – MBT stands for Main Battle Tank – and the data will still be there and usable.
When it comes to cell phones I am sure that the majority of us, nowadays, have one. I do too. But, does it really have to be the latest one every six months or so and then always nowadays the very latest “smart” phone? I personally do not think so. Are we not trying to be way too connected by electronic means and are we not, perhaps, using this as a substitute for real connections?
At a recent event that I attended I also found that many people with their smart phones could not get a signal and thus their phones were not all that smart at all. My simple Nokia cell phone on the O2 network, on the other hand, was in great form.
Those here items mentioned are meant to stand just as a small example of how we are being led to believe that we need to have this or that when, in fact, we don't and we can do well enough without.
This advertising-led campaign to make us think that certain things are essential for our success and our happiness on all levels is what is making us and our Planet sick.
None of us needs a new computer every year or two and neither do government departments and businesses and nor do we, at least not for SOHO applications, need to change the ever latest Microsoft Windows operating system, where the licenses are costly and where huge chunks of memory are taken up by the operating system alone.
In fact, the question must be as to whether we really need Microsoft Windows or other proprietary operating systems and other proprietary software at all. Open Source more often that not, aside from being cheaper, is superior and has a much smaller footprint. Again it is advertising of sorts that makes us go for the proprietary programs, aided and abetted by the equipment vendors.
Marketing changes our perception and wants become needs and this begins already in early childhood when it has to be – why beats me – this brand or that brand of sneakers, baseball cap, etc., and can, on no account, be some generic ones who may, aside from being cheaper, even be better. And the kids will tell you that they need the stuff as specified and that it is a must. In fact, it is not and their life does not depend on it. A gimme hat from a trade fair is probably no worse in quality and construction than the Nike one that you pay $20 for.
I could go on and on here but I shall not as I am sure that you will, by now, all have understood where I am coming from and where I am headed and therefore I am sure that I can leave this here now, for the time being.
© 2011
