The disposable society

My mom often accuses me of being a leader of the disposable society. I assume this society consists of mostly Gen X and Gen Y'ers. Since electronics and technology were rampant in our youth, we are used to the idea that when something breaks you replace it instead of repair it. I think we're used to it because we know that after years of bringing in DVD players and cameras for repair, we understand that the cost quoted to fix the problem is often close or just as much as the cost to completely replace the item.

We have had particularly bad luck with our digital cameras over the last four years. For whatever reason various functions on the cameras have rendered them inoperable and repair costs have been so astronomical that we have had to buy two completely new cameras. I try to tell my mom that I don't WANT to just replace the camera, and that I actually grew very fond of our Pentax and then subsequently our Fuji, but how can you argue with spending just as much to repair a camera that is a few years old when you can get cutting edge technology for less than what you spent two years ago?

Here we are today forced with a decision to DISPOSE or REPLACE a number of items in our house. Our DVD player simply won't work. I don't know why but it no longer reads any DVD's. I could go to the trouble of unplugging it and taking it in for repair, but when new DVD players are $60 I know realistically that is probably a waste of my time.

And worse, my iMac computer seems woefully out-of-date. I won a new fancy schmancy iPod a month ago at work. I tried to get it up-and-running but it turns out I need the latest software on my Mac to make it work. So I figured, what the heck, I'll go buy that Leopard software that is supposed to be wonderful. I guess I failed to notice that in order to install Leopard I need a computer that can accommodate a ridiculous amount of memory, something my 2003 iMac falls short on. So now I have an iPod, and the $150 Leopard software, that can't work on my iMac. I can go to an Apple store and have some additional memory installed for $150. A sidenote that needs mentioning is that my iMac has been running suspiciously like a PC for the last year and seems to crawl around doing the most mundane of tasks.

So I know what you're thinking... why not just buy the memory and get your iMac able to run all your new toys? But wouldn't you at least pause to think that it makes sense to actually buy a whole new computer? My computer is four years old (arguably old in the computer world), it crawls around at a snails pace, and can't seem to accommodate any new peripherals or software I want to buy. Will the new memory be enough to hold me over for another few years?

One thing I will be doing for sure is buying a new DVD player, because in order to make my Netflix subscription worth anything, I need to start watching some DVD's.

But what to do about that pesky computer.... replace or repair.