this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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These are the same people that can't use an iPad unsupervised without somehow getting tricked into sending $2k worth of bitcoin and their SSN to a scammer.
Boomers invented using several different screws in a device to make it unfixable, and then making sure it broke in a year or two
Yeah, the shit they fixed was generally just a motor and some bearings, maybe with some simple electrical switches. Everything was simple and made as durable as possible because that used to be a selling point.
Modern appliances are specialized computers with moving parts that are designed with cheap, flimsy pieces that are only meant to last until their warrenty period runs out. One minute after that and its all "replacement parts? You mean call our service dept or buy a new one, right?"
Lots of boomers fixing modern machines out there? Somehow I bet they are still talking about that one time in 1983 when they changed out the belt in a dryer that had 6 parts total and had been working for 23 years. Yeah, congrats. You did a simple thing to a simple machine.
Being the guy who owns a truck (work truck, I'd love an electric work van or teleporter since we're now in fantasy land lmao) I went with my parents to pick up a new washer and dryer for their house.
While wandering around one of those "we fixed this broken used stuff, and are now selling it to you at 70% original price" , the old guy behind the counter kept talking mad shit about how people my age don't know how to just fix something, and the whole time I'm looking around at verious appliances, I notice something pretty obvious.
All this shit is old, extremely simple, or the only issue was clearly cosmetic and was likely purchased as part of a defect lot. No smart devices, no sensors, not even microwaves. Just things exactly like you described, a belt had broken, or some very simple swappable part needed swapped.
I asked him when the last time he fixed a computer was, or the last time he worked on a car from after 2010. Because I do those all the time, and never see people his age working on their own stuff, they always come to people my age. So maybe let's just get along with our business and try to show off on our personal times, huh?
He thought that was hilarious, and I wasn't intending for it to be rude so I just chuckled with him and went about loading everything up.
Honestly I love working on older things, and I like working on my truck because of how simple it is. My truck is from the 90s, and while it's about half the size of modern trucks, I've always wanted a smaller one like an old Ford ranger or even some of the smaller pickups from the 60s/70s. If I could do an electric swap within my budget limitations on one of those, I'd be soooooo thrilled. Modern EVs are too complicated for me now. I can do electronics work, but damn.
Boomers created the current system where you can't "just fix" your dishwasher. The old dish washer at my parents can be fixed with a screw driver and a ¢25 washer from home depot. The newer ones are all glue, one way plastic clips, and stickers that say it can only be repaired by a certified repair shop. I get kinda what they are saying but the change didn't happen in a vacuum. I used to repaired computers for a living and I noticed year after year computers became more difficult to repair. For most laptops you can't just open them up and swap out bad parts. It's all glued together and has micro components that need to be resoldered to the motherboard. Great for size but impossible to repair outside of the manufacturer. I mean for fuck sakes their are billion dollar military equipment that can't be serviced without the manufacturers help. It's all a scam to keep us dependent on corporations.
The pixel watch is so bad that if you crack the screen, Google tells you to throw it away and buy a new one. Apparently even Google themselves can't repair that.
Proper watches >>>> wristphones
I can't remember who made it, but some years ago before the big smartwatch boom, someone put out a watch that had a standard mechanism, but also a tiny one-line screen that would show information like texts to you. That seemed like a good middle ground. But I don't see a lot of watches that fit that middle ground anymore.
Withings and then Nokia had this one. Looks decent
They still do: https://www.withings.com/mx/en/scanwatch-2
And they’re awesome. Battery lasts weeks on a single charge, works like a watch should, tracks all sorts of things and gives you silent notifications like a smart wearable should.
That might be the one I was thinking of.
isn't that just a pager?
Only really high-end pagers showed texts and you didn't have the convenience of wearing one on your wrist.
not with that attitude
If they made a mechanical watch that could control my podcasts and show me notifications without me taking my phone out of my pocket, I'd buy it.
Sometimes you have to kobayashi maru things in life.
Part of being a conscious consumer is having the willpower to forgo convience for something bigger.
Unfortunately, we are in hyper simulated/consumerist society, so I really only see this trend getting exacerbated until some global calamity happening.
Nah, I'm not willing to put a moral value on whether or not I own a smartwatch. Especially when a family member purchased it for me as a gift.
That said, it makes Google a hell of a lot more money if you keep buying new watches than if they have to keep repairing the old ones.
That's the logic behind every one of those decisions that made things harder to repair. The only fix really is government intervention, because capitalist logic by itself dictates that this is how you make more profit.
Knock on wood, but I'm still rocking a fuckin' Pebble. The build quality on these is fantastic.
I know a couple of people who got them and swore by them. I didn't realize they still were compatible with modern phones.
My parents' washing machine broke when I was probably like 8 or 9. I helped my dad fix it over a weekend; it cost like $20 and took us a few hours over the course of Friday and Saturday, not counting a couple of trips to the hardware store. We didn't need much in the way of tools other than a Philips screwdriver and a socket set. That washer is still working today, 30 years later.
Contrast that with the washer I bought when we moved into our home five years ago. It broke a month ago, and I didn't even have the tools required to open it. The defect was with the motherboard, the tech discovered; and it would cost $550 to get a replacement made since the part was discontinued three years ago. That replacement would be ready in a month. Or I could spend $600 to buy a new machine.
We live in a very different world.
Not to mention... you can't fix modern appliances. They're built to be replaced.
PLUS if you're working multiple gigs to make ends meet over 40 hours a week, the last thing you want to do on your free hours off is try to take apart your dishwasher
This. My uncle used to have a garage and already in the nineties was complaining that fixing cars was about to become impossible due to the addition of electronic parts that were black boxes to him. 30 years later and we live in a world where obfuscation is done on purpose.
Edit: we must start a movement of open source appliances. Cut out the middleman, buy directly the parts and assemble the thing yourself, so youu know exactly how to fix it later on. If it works for 3d printers why can't it work for kettles and dishwashers?
Boomer culture is highly problematic, but remember not all boomers are this way and even many of those that are were taught to be this way, that's what culture is. Boomers were raised in an extremely toxic, capitalist, exploitative world and mostly only saw the good side of it.
If you were raised the same way, with the same info available, the same things taught to you, you might behave similarly.
The problem is not boomers or any other generation. The problem is the tiny psychopathic hoarder class and their hired goons and they want you to blame other generations, other races, other countries, anything but them.
In my experience, boomers pay someone else to fix it, then say they did it themselves. Gen x are the do it yourselfers.
Gen X here. I'm just shocked someone remembered us
Shame they didn't extend that idea of fix it yourself to the environment... Oh wait, they did. 'Fix it yourself', they said.