For the past few weeks I’ve been agonizing over my daughter’s request for a portable cassette player. She has been searching for a specific model and asked if I knew where she could find one. Oddly enough, the model she seeks was the identical make and model to my old portable unit which I can’t find anywhere.
As I was scouring boxes of old memories it occurred to me that she may never be able to use the device because recording equipment is nearly impossible to find. While I was speculating on how she would transfer music from one technology to another I also had the thought she wouldn’t be able to purchase new tapes.
Technologies become passé and antiquated and eventually move over to newer and better replacements. Cassette tapes were the rage in the 80’s and 90’s; however, today you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who uses tape. In the early 90’s CD players took the place of cassette decks and with the advent of inexpensive CD burners in the mid 90’s, music CD’s were a few clicks away.
Televisions saw the same kind of shift from black and white to full color. A few years ago tube type sets were replaced with much thinner LCD’s. Clearly economy had an effect on the transition from black and white to color. Technology evolved and eventually everyone owned a color set. Now, of course, we can purchase an LCD flat panel that also receives broadcasts in three-dimensional high-definition.
A few months ago I wrote about some technologies that don’t necessarily need to be displaced; but are because of fads. In the few examples I’ve talked about so far, old technology has been forced to obsolescence because of new. Not only are newer and better technologies born that displace old; but supporting technologies no longer allow the old to work.
My daughter’s cassette deck is a pretty novel idea; however, she can no longer purchase blank cassettes and I’m not sure she will be able to find a new recorder. It is now impossible to purchase a tube television, never mind a black and white tube TV. I’m pretty sure old TV sets wouldn’t be able to decipher modern over-the-air broadcasts.
No matter the technology it is bound to become obsolete as new equipment evolves which makes the old no longer easily used. Kodak, which has been around since the 1800’s, recently filed bankruptcy and is selling huge portions of its business to stay afloat. My understanding is digital photography displaced a huge portion of their film business causing financial strain.
Owning a piece of old technology can sometimes sting, especially if it’s an expensive piece of old technology. Even more so, is owning a piece of old technology that’s also unusable due to a complete rule change. A $50.00 portable tape player is one thing, but if you owned a $500.00 HD DVD player/recorder that was discontinued because of Blu-Ray then you’d be pretty upset.
No matter the technology, eventually it’s going to be replaced by something far superior. We will inherently see the demise of older products and witness them being replaced by new and different technologies. I believe most products being manufactured today will eventually become obsolete due to lack of support after replacements evolve. If you have one of those old cassette players stashed in your closet, I suggest holding on to it to show your kids or grandkids. We will reach a point when your kids may not know the technology even existed.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can call him directly at (978) 919-8059) or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.