Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America Part II

The next three chapters in Slade's novel I found to be sort of confusing and almost irrelevant. Chapter 4 went into a very detailed chronological order of how new innovations of radio manufacturing and broadcasting were the beginning to the development of product obsolescence in the industry of computer electronics. Then Chapter 5 went on to discuss how the invention of "nylon would soon make Japanese silk obsolete" (pg. 123). This is where i started to lose my focus. I understand that onset of World War II and the use of nylon "symbolized America's creative industrial capability as well as its determination to do without Japanese silk" (pg. 127). However, the detail that Slade went into I felt was a bit overwhelming and unnecessary. I also didn't see the connection of obsolescence between the choice of nylon over silk. Slade goes on to talk about how silk is still used today, but the context of how we think about it is different. Nowadays people think of silk as a luxury item, mostly used for sheets and intimate or expensive clothing. Nylon was less expensive and therefore companies preferred to use it over silk, which doesn't necessarily make silk obsolete, but just less favored in use during mass production. However, I can see in some sense how clothes and certain fabrics become obsolete when fashion trends fade in and out. In Chapter 6, the fifties and sixties were all about planned obsolescence. Companies made good products and induced people to buy them, but then deliberately enhanced these products so the next year they could market them and make the old ones obsolete, solely to make money (pg. 153). It is definitely clear that companies have not lost this mentality with all the new devices that come out every year - iPhone, iPod, Computers, TVs, etc. Obsolescence in this form makes more sense to me than when Slade was talking about the switch from silk to nylon stockings. Companies are driven by the sole desire to make money every year with their new products, where some aren't even that much different than the year before. In these three chapters Slade discussed the development of obsolescence in America through the war, and 50s and 60s, and it certainly shows that the ideas and tactics that were followed in the past are still present in culture today.