Hello.
I saw the first video recorder from a classmate, it happened about forty years ago. The control panel was still on the wire, it stretched across the entire room, and the small rectangle was packed in a plastic bag, which was covered with electrical tape for security. The outlines of buttons were visible through the opaque plastic; my classmate expertly described where to press to start playing or pause it. A year later, the video recorder appeared at my house, but the remote control was already without a bag, no one planned to hand it over to a second-hand store, the tape recorder was bought for use in subsequent years. In many ways, the bag on the control panel has become for me a visual synonym for a person’s thriftiness in relation to devices, and thriftiness of the bad kind. I don’t have a single remote control hidden in a bag, I hope that you don’t use them either.
There is a huge market in the world for thrifty people; they are sold completely useless things, each of which warms their soul. For example, people buy a beautiful oak table – the texture of the wood is beautiful, the veins play. And then they order “liquid glass” for it, a kind of polymer that should protect the surface from dirt and scratches. As if this table should live for a million years and remain exactly the same.
Many times I tried to understand why people act this way, but I could not find a rational explanation for this frugality. It’s not a matter of preserving things for ages, but rather trying to use an algorithm that is inherently stupid. Some things need to age, and there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, aging adds charm to the surface of wood. Why try to avoid this? There are no things in the world that look exactly the same as the first day you bought them. And they cannot exist, this is the normal course of things.
Another example that baffles me. A huge SUV with a chrome bumper on it, a girl running around it, wailing and waving her arms. It hit a post and a small scratch appeared on the bumper; it can only be seen in one case – if you look closely. While I was waiting for a friend nearby, I overheard a conversation with the insurance company, complaints to a friend about his bad mood and the “urgent need to repair the car.” I always thought that the bumper was designed to protect the car body from impacts, read – to collect scratches and the like. Scratches on the bumper are normal, why such a manic desire to preserve the pristine appearance of the car, as if it had just rolled off the assembly line?
With electronics, everything is much simpler; the same phones are hidden in cases to protect them from wear and tear. And there is nothing wrong with this; often the case provides additional protection, and sometimes its use is justified. In no case do I equate a phone case with a case for the control panel, these are different worlds.
But I am endlessly surprised by people who begin to “save” the battery in their phones and try to change their lifestyle so that the battery lasts as long as possible. Sometimes there are neglected cases – people charge their phones according to a schedule, turn off some functions so as not to load the battery, and so on. It feels like they were put in place to save the battery, and not to use their device. They cannot admit that the battery is a consumable item. And this, frankly speaking, scares me, and greatly. Still, a person who creates trouble for himself out of the blue, saving the battery charge at any cost so that it lasts as long as possible, is something unimaginable. But there are many such people.
Sometimes frugality takes painful forms. I’ll quote a question that a stranger asked me in an email: “Please tell me how quickly the processor wears out if you use the iPhone for two hours a day. How long will it last? Do I need to reduce the time I use my phone to make it last as long as possible? Same question about the screen and battery.”
It’s okay to take care of your devices, but make a cult out of it? I think there are certain problems with understanding life and what you do in it. Very often people take care of their devices and try to leave them in their original condition. For example, many manufacturers stick shipping film onto the phone body to prevent the edges from rubbing or getting scratched during transportation. About once a month they ask me where they can find such a film to stick it on (and these are people who hide their devices in cases, but this is not enough for them, they want absolute protection!). Every time the questions puzzle me, it seems to me that they are laughing at me, if not mocking me. But no, these people are seriously trying to solve the problem.
I won’t remember those who leave branded stickers on their equipment. Although there are wonderful examples here that give an idea of what is happening. A person who had recently installed a large diagonal TV called for support and complained that the picture quality left much to be desired and there were some stains on the screen. He sent photographs where the reflection of the chandelier and the rainbow from the iridescent shades were visible. The manufacturer sent a service engineer to find out what the problem was and try to solve it. And then a scandal arose!
There was a shipping film on the TV screen, it is quite hard and needs to be removed before first use. It’s even written on it. But the owner decided to protect his TV from future adversity, because something could happen to it! And he left the film. Moreover, he proved to the engineer that the TV should work through film, since this is exactly what the manufacturer intended, who “protected” it and did it for a reason. In the end, there were a lot of complaints, complaints about poor quality service, and only after days spent clarifying the issue, the film was reluctantly removed. Anyone who has worked in support of a large electronics manufacturer does not laugh when he hears such stories. The man who told me this story added one more touch – the man motivated his knowledge by the fact that he is a doctor of science, and not some kind of rogue who services televisions for pennies. I won’t say about an academic degree, but I personally have no doubt that this person is not smart, since he cannot deal with simple everyday things.
If you think that there are few such stories, then you are wrong. Quite often, thrifty people do not remove the packaging tape on large household appliances, and stickers advertising something about this appliance also remain on it. Stickers do not affect the quality of operation of household appliances, but shipping tapes must be removed. Another anecdote happened with a dishwasher, where the cellophane from the detergent dispenser was not removed, and then they complained that the dishes remained dirty. The user could not imagine that one was connected to the other, because this is higher mathematics.
I may be wrong in my assessments, but they stem from my experience. I can’t stand the frugality described above. As for me, you need to use everything calmly and not get nervous from everyday stories when this or that thing gets old, gets scratches, and so on. It is utopian to think that you will keep something in its original condition. And why?
At the same time, I sincerely consider myself a neat person, I try not to break equipment, take care of it to the best of my ability and necessity (change batteries that are out of order, clean them from dirt, and so on). But I don’t worry about it and don’t try to put everything in covers or hide it in three layers of cellophane. If something like this happens, there is always a service where you can repair the breakdown. Or decide to buy something new. But to be killed because something is broken? Or didn’t it even break, but got a scratch? This is definitely not mine, there is a place in life for other experiences, not such empty ones.
Tell us what kind of person you consider yourself to be, how you feel about technology and how much you care for it. It will be interesting to know about this.
2023-12-13 12:46:22
#Caring #electronics #disease #people
