Photo Essay : "Ghost of Techno Past"

These days, technology changes so fast, the moment you buy something, it almosts becomes obsolete in the next one year. I remember the time I was deciding on the specs for my desktop computer one and a half years ago. I chose to go for 120 Gb, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb video card and Pentium 4, 3.0GHz Intel processor. At that time, mine would have been considered kind of above average specs. Today, in a short 1.5 years, I have upgraded to 2Gb RAM, external 250Gb harddisk, and a 22-inch widescreen LCD. I am thinking of upgrading to a 256 Mb video card or better in the next week.

It's no wonder Singaporeans flock to each Computer Fair every year. For the record, we have about 3-4 mega fairs each year - COMEX, SITEX, IT Show, PC Show, whatever you can call it, we have it. And without fail, each fair will attract in droves, Singaporeans looking for the next upgrade. Have we become addicted to upgrading, to having the best gadgets, to buying the next big thing in this technology race of "if you have the biggest, the brightest, you are above the rest." It certainly brings a new meaning to the phrase, "Size matters." Yours is only 29 inch? Have you seen my 42 inch? Ha.

Let's face it. We do take pleasure in showing off our new toys. We feel good when people come to our house and go "Whoa..... so big your plasma TV. How much you buy one?" "Oh, no lah. not much. Less than $3,000." I take it as an investment. Singapore going HD mah. Gahmen say one Must keep up with the times. (Btw, HD stands for High Definition. You mean you don't know???)"

"According to research company GfK Asia, the number of plasma TV sets sold locally reached 8,000 units for the third quarter in 2006, almost four times the 2,223 plasma TV sets sold in first the six months of the same year. Local operators expect the sale of HD-ready products to grow throughout 2007. The segment market for LCD TV also experienced a boom for the same period, reaching 13,114 units. The high demand for HD-ready products is due to price reductions and not programme quality and technology capability." (Enterprise One Focus Issue 0308)

That's quite a staggering amount of plasma displays if you consider that these are usually the bigger sized screens. What's stranger is the fact that we are buying them up not because there are better shows or more HD content available. We are buying them because they are cheaper! We are really just blindly following a trend!

Now, imagine, if all these money were used to help fund school-building or education programs in poverty-stricken villages overseas, or to help improve the living conditions of the poorer elderly in Singapore, wouldn't it be a more worthwhile investment than paying for something which has the chance of becoming obsolete in at most 5 years?!

While they are stuck in their poverty cycle, we are stuck in our own consumerist cycle! More advanced hardware requires better and more expensive software which then feeds the need for better hardware. Can we live with less techonology? Are we really any better off with more? We all have experienced at one time of another, the horror of losing our handphone or pda or laptop. A horror we would have never known 15 years ago. Now, I'm not saying society should not progress. The question is, "Are we still in control of this progress?" I am quite doubtful.

So I've decided that I must intentionally learn to be more contented with what I have. Don't just live within your means. Live below your means. A wise man I know once said, "Live simply so that others might simply live." Wise words indeed.