The Bitching Hour #4 - Cost of technology
While we are definitely different people I think we will definitely agree on the topic of this week's bitching hour - the cost of technology.
Tricia
The whole thing that gave me the idea for this blog was the release of the newest iPhone (check out our twitter account for the poll and put your vote in) this week. The price of it is absolutely ridiculous! I don't know about you but even if we weren't planning and paying for our wedding I certainly don't have that type of disposable income. I typically am not a brand whore but I do love my Apple products. Even the lesser models (in my opinion lesser) of smartphones can be very costly! Unless you're willing to go to the bottom of the barrel quality and performance wise for a smart phone you're talking a couple hundred dollars.
Korie and I have had to start this blog instead of recording because both of our computers are a bit older and it's not simple to download the recording software. Neither of our computers can really operate for long without being plugged in. But can we go and buy new computers ? Nope! A comparable computer to what I have is at least $1800. Again, I don't have that kind of cash lying around. Let's say we even go outside of Apple...you're still looking at upwards of $800 for a decent computer!
At work I always say technology is great until it doesn't work. People literally act like the world is ending when the system goes down for a few minutes. Technology has spoiled us. Do you remember the time before cell phones ? Before we could google whatever we needed an answer for and actually had to work for it ? Technology has cost us greatly as a society to. People need immediate gratification because they literally have the world at their fingertips. Generations after ours won't have memories of how things were before because this is all they will have known.
The bottom line is the greed of people is detrimental to us. These technological geniuses want to line their pockets at the expense of consumers. Technology is a beautiful thing but the cost of using it is ridiculous! The more technology is used in our society the higher the cost of things go - education, shopping, restaurants, healthcare - in order to cover the cost of that technology. Greed!
Korie
I think this comes at the perfect time. When better to bitch about the cost of technology than on the heels of an Apple event in which the company announces a $1,000 smart phone! Yeah, ok, it has AR, face ID and "the most powerful and smartest chip ever". I get it. And I also know that there are people who will throw down that kind of money without a second thought. Some of those people have large amounts of disposable income and $1,000 isn't a lot to them. Others might put it on a credit card that they never intend to pay. I unfortunately, with a toddler, a mother-in-law and a mortgage (not to mention, amazing credit that I don't want to screw up), do not fall into either of these categories.
One thing Tricia and I do agree on, is our belief in the superiority of all things Apple. My husband is a computer geek and our house is full of Apple products, all laptops, computers, and phones are apple. We also use Apple TV and I sport a (refurbished) Apple Watch. But, like Tricia also mentioned, what started off as an idea for a podcast, has for now become a blog due to in my case, an 8 year old MacBook that can only function as a desktop and can't handle any new software. And yes, we could go outside of Apple products, but then we have to make the choice, pay less for lower quality product, or save or pennies, dealing with out-of-date technology for a while in order to ultimately buy a quality laptop that does everything we need it to. Talk about #firstworldproblems.
I took economics in undergrad. While I received some of the lowest marks of my scholastic career in those classes, I still understand the concept of supply and demand. Do I truly believe that the new iPhone X is worth $1,000? No. I believe that Apple could charge way less, and still make a profit. However, they hyped it up, got people excited and those people are willing to fork over a grand. So why would Apple bother to lower the price? I don't even want or need the new iPhone. I would however, like a laptop that works like a laptop. And I want it to be a MacBook because that's what I know how to use and I like how they work. But alas, the Bitching Hour must remain a blog for now and a blog that I must write at work on my Lenovo ThinkPad. The struggle is real and I'm sure you can relate. Why the heck is technology so expensive?
Tricia
The whole thing that gave me the idea for this blog was the release of the newest iPhone (check out our twitter account for the poll and put your vote in) this week. The price of it is absolutely ridiculous! I don't know about you but even if we weren't planning and paying for our wedding I certainly don't have that type of disposable income. I typically am not a brand whore but I do love my Apple products. Even the lesser models (in my opinion lesser) of smartphones can be very costly! Unless you're willing to go to the bottom of the barrel quality and performance wise for a smart phone you're talking a couple hundred dollars.
Korie and I have had to start this blog instead of recording because both of our computers are a bit older and it's not simple to download the recording software. Neither of our computers can really operate for long without being plugged in. But can we go and buy new computers ? Nope! A comparable computer to what I have is at least $1800. Again, I don't have that kind of cash lying around. Let's say we even go outside of Apple...you're still looking at upwards of $800 for a decent computer!
At work I always say technology is great until it doesn't work. People literally act like the world is ending when the system goes down for a few minutes. Technology has spoiled us. Do you remember the time before cell phones ? Before we could google whatever we needed an answer for and actually had to work for it ? Technology has cost us greatly as a society to. People need immediate gratification because they literally have the world at their fingertips. Generations after ours won't have memories of how things were before because this is all they will have known.
The bottom line is the greed of people is detrimental to us. These technological geniuses want to line their pockets at the expense of consumers. Technology is a beautiful thing but the cost of using it is ridiculous! The more technology is used in our society the higher the cost of things go - education, shopping, restaurants, healthcare - in order to cover the cost of that technology. Greed!
Korie
I think this comes at the perfect time. When better to bitch about the cost of technology than on the heels of an Apple event in which the company announces a $1,000 smart phone! Yeah, ok, it has AR, face ID and "the most powerful and smartest chip ever". I get it. And I also know that there are people who will throw down that kind of money without a second thought. Some of those people have large amounts of disposable income and $1,000 isn't a lot to them. Others might put it on a credit card that they never intend to pay. I unfortunately, with a toddler, a mother-in-law and a mortgage (not to mention, amazing credit that I don't want to screw up), do not fall into either of these categories.
One thing Tricia and I do agree on, is our belief in the superiority of all things Apple. My husband is a computer geek and our house is full of Apple products, all laptops, computers, and phones are apple. We also use Apple TV and I sport a (refurbished) Apple Watch. But, like Tricia also mentioned, what started off as an idea for a podcast, has for now become a blog due to in my case, an 8 year old MacBook that can only function as a desktop and can't handle any new software. And yes, we could go outside of Apple products, but then we have to make the choice, pay less for lower quality product, or save or pennies, dealing with out-of-date technology for a while in order to ultimately buy a quality laptop that does everything we need it to. Talk about #firstworldproblems.
I took economics in undergrad. While I received some of the lowest marks of my scholastic career in those classes, I still understand the concept of supply and demand. Do I truly believe that the new iPhone X is worth $1,000? No. I believe that Apple could charge way less, and still make a profit. However, they hyped it up, got people excited and those people are willing to fork over a grand. So why would Apple bother to lower the price? I don't even want or need the new iPhone. I would however, like a laptop that works like a laptop. And I want it to be a MacBook because that's what I know how to use and I like how they work. But alas, the Bitching Hour must remain a blog for now and a blog that I must write at work on my Lenovo ThinkPad. The struggle is real and I'm sure you can relate. Why the heck is technology so expensive?
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