There are those who argue that recent technological improvements have made traditional skills less significant and some others argue otherwise. Both of these prospects will be examined and a final comment will be given at the end.
Some people think with the advent of new technologies the older areas of expertise become less important. New gadgets, machines, and inventions create innovative, convenient, and faster ways of performing tasks in different professions. For example, renowned shoe manufacturing companies like Nike, by utilizing automatic machines in production lines, produce thousands of shoes with much higher speed and within a much less significant time than a labor worker does. In addition, new machines operate with considerably higher precision and sufficiency. Excel, for example, is a software developed and published by Microsoft that revolutionized accounting and in a broader term, all of the office work because now they could calculate and organize large data significantly faster. Due to all these, people with mostly practical points of view argue the possibilities technologies bring, drive the traditional skills to be of no avail.
On the other hand, some contend recent advancements in technology add to the value of past professions. Both objects and intellectual productions appear to be more artistic and historical since the creations of machines seem perfect, similar, and abundant. Man-made objects usually convey a sense of passion and nostalgia due to their imperfection and uniqueness. Painters paint lively and beautiful paintings and potters make bowls that take us to the past. In many cases, people are willing to pay more for goods that are man-made. Tailors who make personalized attires are examples of such. this shows that people consider these kinds of craftsmanship to have more value than ordinary machine-made items.
Plus, since technologies contribute more and more to globalization, the world is moving toward a sort of homogeneousness for political affairs, cultures, languages, etc… are merging. This deteriorates the sense of national identity thus people need to contribute more to their ancestor heritages that represent their culture and history.
In conclusion, I believe old-fashioned masteries become increasingly valuable for they are glamorous and embody the culture and history.