CMCstudent, 2/15

I really liked learning about “the cult of the new.” It is definitely a change that has come with time and a difference of generations. As some have noted in their blogs their older family members say “if nothing is wrong with it, why fix it”. I believe this is a concept of the past. In today’s world and as a new generation, we are constantly wanting new things. We believe “this is new so it must have something the older one doesn’t”. We do not realize that a lot of the things that are older are actually better in quality. For example, furniture. Compare the furniture quality in the early 1900’s to today. Back then, everything was made from wood, and usually hand carved. Today, we buy desks made of compressed wood fibers to save money. The furniture from the early 1900’s may not be super glossy, but it sure is stronger than the compressed wood fibers desks that are going to collapse in about 3 years. However, we are so brain washed by hegemonic media that we assume if anything has the word “new” associated with it, it is automatically better. Modernists view the world as advancing in knowledge everyday, so everyday one becomes smarter than the last, thus inventing and reinventing “new,” improved items. We all remember products that after time have become “obsolete through the novelty of the next new style” (99). An example of this is the chalk board. Chalk boards used to be in all schools since the beginning of their being made. It caused problems with children who had asthma and other breathing problems. The advancing knowledge found a way to be able to do the same thing with a different product. Now white erase boards are installed into most schools replacing and making chalk boards obsolete.