In contemporary society, used items have a tendency to be replaced whenever individuals buy new ones while this phenomenon reverses in the past, at which old things were fixed and reused. This issue stems from a plethora of reasons causing subsequent negative influences.
The habit of disusing old things when buying new products is driven by several factors. One of the major reasons is that in modern society more people have financial ability to lead high-standard lives involving using new items rather than the obsolete ones. In other words, nowadays, a plethora of people have financial security in comparison with those in the past, enabling them to substitute old things with the latest products for the sake of convenient lives. As a result, buying new things does not require excessive expense, but contributes to an improved quality of routine activities. Another cause is that the mass production of commodities allows people to buy new things with more affordable prices than in the past. Specifically, unlike previously limited manufacture, producing consumer goods are fostered in the era of economic development. For example, laptops are common for nearly all kinds of consumers which are usually replaced because of expensive repeated fixing costs. In contrast, they were considered to be luxurious in previous decades for buying new ones rather than repairing. Hence, people can buy new things with reasonable prices, which is sometimes more cost-effective compared to refurbishment.
However, there are several shortcomings to this current trend. Firstly, constantly buying new stuff can deteriorate personal financial budgets. This is because some items that have unnoticeable errors can place financial burden on consumers for continuous replacement. Thus, using new products is not always the optimum solution. Secondly, increasingly buying new things and discarding old ones have great impacts on the environment. This means that the dispose of old stuff can detrimentally affect the natural environment through their chemical or plastic materials. For example, the relentless discard of TVs, fridges and other old furniture leads to electronic pollution globally.
In conclusion, it is understandable that buying new items and disposing of the old ones have grown in popularity in the modern world where people have financial ability for higher-standard living and access to affordable stuff. Nevertheless, this phenomenon should be strictly restricted due to harmful effects on environmental benefits and financial management at individual levels.
