Sticking With Old Devices

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Brian Lehrer (0:42)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and we'll end the show today with a conversation about old tech and why some of us hang on to it, defying planned obsolescence and the tech company's encouragement to upgrade all the time. Early adopters, this one's not for you. Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly, an assistant editor at The Atlantic, writes about this in a new article titled The Upgrade Holdouts, and she joins us now. Hi, Alexandra. Welcome to WNYC.

Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly (1:10)

Hi there. Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer (1:12)

And listeners, come on in on the phones if you want. What's the oldest tech you're using and why?

The cost of upgrading is a factor. We know, but there are other reasons we can get into, like nostalgia, resisting, the escalating commitment to technology developments, having to learn new ways to use your equipment, or do you save money by buying old tech to start with? You can do that for sure on many sites. What's your reason for hanging on to or even seeking out old technology? 212-433-WNYC.

Our text feed technology is not working, so we can only take phone calls. 212-433-9692. So Alexandra, I see when you talk to people about their preference for older tech, some of it was due to exhaustion with constant upgrading or resisting corporations. Some of it was attachment to the quirks and features that they would lose with an upgrade. What stood out to you?

Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly (2:15)

Yeah, what I found is there's really a wide range of reasons for why somebody might do this. A lot of the people I spoke to are a little bit older and maybe just aren't interested in having to relearn how to use a new device or a new operating system. They're content with what they already know.

Others really like the simplicity of older technology. Some are more inspired by sort of anti-consumer sentiments and really this urge to retain a sense of autonomy. But then there's also people that really aren't doing this for any sort of grand principle but have just held on to their devices for the practical reasons of it still works and they don't want to spend money on a new one.

I would say kind of like the overriding sentiment that everybody expressed was that they're not anti-technology, they're not leadites, they have and enjoy electronics, but they just want to be able to use them in their own way and not feel like new ones are being forced upon them.

Brian Lehrer (3:19)

Right.

This is about tech devices, we should say, with operating systems that are constantly being upgraded or updated, so it's not just the mechanical parts that break down. This isn't about people still playing cassettes on an old Walkman or something, but people still using iPods.

Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly (3:42)

Yeah, exactly. These are like consumer electronic devices. Some of the people I spoke to have iPods from the 2000s or laptops that are a couple decades old, a range of older smartphones, that sort of thing. And they've refused to upgrade for the most part because they still work and they're still content with them, even if they're not necessarily new and flashy.

Brian Lehrer (4:08)

How much of this is about nostalgia? We did a segment on Friday about what another writer called nostalgia for cringey millennial culture, which was a more optimistic time in that writer's telling. Does any of this attach to that?

Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly (4:28)

Yeah, definitely. That idea of nostalgia for the simplicity of older technology is something that came up in my conversations.

One person I spoke with, for example, told me he's continued to use two laptops that are both more than a decade old because he finds them peaceful compared to more modern systems. They're not filled with tons of notifications and update alerts or even advertisements. They feel less intrusive and allow him to maintain this sense of control over his digital presence. And a lot of other people I spoke to said they were holding on to older devices because over the years, they've seen their friends and the rest of the world become increasingly dependent on them and seen things like social media play a bigger, bigger role in their lives. And that's just something that they'd like to stay away from.