Primary+Data+4+SP


 * Ethnographic Study **

One or two weekends of this semester, I have gone back home to visit my family. For one or two hours during this time, I would watch television with my sisters. I do not have a TV in my apartment at school so this is more of a special occasion kind of thing for me. I had almost forgotten just how frequently we are bombarded with product advertising throughout every show that we watch on TV. The commercial break seemed to last just as long as the show time and I felt like I was completely wasting my time. And yet my sisters seemed completely oblivious to what was happening. Almost as if they were conditioned to see commercials as an automatic thing that was normal to see daily. It has been quite some time since I have seen this level of advertising, having been so far away from this world well focused on my studies. I have bad luck on my computer as well and even while watching YouTube videos and surfing the web, I am able to avoid targeted product advertising in the general culture of consumerism. I’m usually not tempted to buy new products that are only incrementally better than those IRD have and seem to be satisfied with what I have. I notice this is quite different from the views of my sisters and her peers as well as mine. Not only were there a not only was there a constant bombardment of commercials but the same commercials kept popping up over and over again as if to brainwash us into memorizing and associating certain things in daily events in life portrayed in the commercials, with their products. I felt extremely frustrated and annoyed by the end of each commercial break and almost lost interest in the shows we were watching. Commercials and advertising seems to be inescapable in the modern world. Everyone is trying to sell you something.
 * Watching Television**

The mall in Syracuse is called Destiny USA. It used to be called the Carousel Mall, but after expanding some years ago, it changed its brand and image with a visionary name and more parking spaces. The mall is actually an iconic building standing as the tallest structure in the immediate area with a glass pyramid rooftop leading to an antenna tower from the top. At least was the intended architecture to dominate the scene; however, with the exaction, large white brick slab buildings were added and the mall seems to have more than doubled in size. This new building look is quite industrial but to help soften the giant cement prison wall look that one would see from the road while approaching the property entrance by car, they have added banners with only the most aesthetically pleasing well know brand advertisements for products that await within the mall. The inside of the mall was quite impressive. It was Sunday afternoon and Thanksgiving was coming up Thursday: then the infamous back Friday would arrive. I could feel the anticipation in the air as shoppers were scouting out what items would have the best deals and what items they would be willing to fight for to own. The parking lots were flooding over already. To get a good sense of just how many people there were, I sat down at the food court and watched groups of people come and go. I tried to get a sense of demographic percentage but it was impossible because there was an abundance of just about every type of person you could imagine there. I visited and observed people, products, and environment in countless stores including Dicks Sporting Goods, Forever 21, The Gap, Brookstone, and the Apple Store to start. Many of the items I saw people carrying to the checkout lines, I couldn’t imagine people actually needed or even substantially improving quality of life in correlation to their price tags. I was astonished at the volume of each product and it was interesting to stay in one store, ask an employee what the most popular items were and then watch the items disappear from the shelves over a few hours after upon my return. I spent some time in the apple store as well asking their so called geniuses about the different generations of products, warranties, repair services and costs. There’s a lot of fine print to their warranties. Some interesting things I saw at the mall included…
 * Shopping Malls**
 * A teenager buying three different brands of headphones from best buy. I imagine that he was planning to save the recite and return the other two after
 * Just about every other person fifth line at the Apple store was buying an IPhone 6.
 * Around 30% of people had their phone in their hand. Many were texting while walking.
 * I only saw a few people actually talking on the phone while there.
 * There was free mall Wi-Fi
 * Even Santa had his own advertising
 * Smiling kids and scowling mothers and fathers coming out of stores.
 * Christmas shopping is hectic and the atmosphere is frantic and almost exhilarating
 * The kiosks with electronic maps were designed by ChaseDesign and built at Mack Studios and I worked at both companies over the summer.


 * Customer Interviews**

- What objects in your life do you think are designed to fail or become unusable? - What are some products that become obsolete that aren’t intentionally designed to? -Why do you think they become useless or less desirable to use? - What are some products that you replace even though they are still usable? -What motivates you to stop using or replace these products? - Do you think some products should be designed to become obsolete? If so, which types and why? - Do we need planned obsolescence? Perceived obsolescence? - What are your views about planned obsolescence? What are your frustrations? - To what extent do you think the positives of planned obsolescence affect you? - Do you think that at this point within the current social and economic structure, sustainable product development and technological advancement could be achieved and what do you think would be required for this to happen if you think it is possible?
 * Some of the clothes I wear
 * My car built in the US
 * Computer software
 * My iPhone
 * Some Toys
 * Phones
 * Computers
 * Electronics
 * Something better has replaced them
 * They look old and ugly
 * My phone
 * My computer
 * My clothes
 * My shoes
 * My car
 * I get tired of how it looks
 * It gets boring to use after a while
 * Something cooler that can do more comes out
 * Well if I can still use it, I usually do until it breaks or there is something that makes the thing I’m using really inefficient and makes me look dumb. Like no one is using a dial phone anymore because it just looks completely ridiculous compared to an IPhone.
 * Well maybe things like phones, computers, and electronics because the technology in them is constantly improving and making last year’s tech seem slow and old.
 * A quickly changing product from tech pressure should be designed to adapt so that it doesn’t become obsolete and plastic waste for the dump
 * Disposable goods are okay if they don’t damage the environment and are recycled
 * What is perceived obsolescence?
 * It is frustrating that I go buy a product for a lot of money and a year later, they have a newer version that does more but I won’t bet it because I already spent a lot on this one so I have to keep using it
 * If a company is designing a product to last for less time so that I have to buy another, I think that is wrong and really frustrates me
 * It makes sense and I would probably do the same thing if I was them.
 * I don’t know if there are any positives.
 * I’m not sure but things like upgradable components or services are nice.
 * I guess it is in our best interest that new tech is being put in products each year. The thing I don’t like is when they have the means and ability to put a feature or new capability into a product but don’t only because they want to save it so next year’s model has something new
 * I do think it is possible but I have no I how we will get there
 * Maybe it is too late and we are destined to trash the planet. We are pretty good at that already
 * I am not sure. If we continue to do things the way they are done today, we will run out of resources and time and it will be too late by the time we are forced to do things differently because there is no other option