A short history of the Disposable Society and the relationships it created
Back in the 1980s, America embraced the Disposable Society. Neutron Jack Welch too over General Electric and fired people because he could. The company was profitable, and the move was widely panned (thus earning Welch the nickname).
However, it was one of the moves that made GE one of the most profitable countries in the world. It also made the employee-career relationship disposable. No longer could workers plan on having job that would fund their retirement as well. In fact, some companies fired employees on the cusp of becoming vested in retirement, so the company wouldn’t have to fund the retirement.
Jobs weren’t the only things that were disposable. Everything became cheaper – more cheaply made and cheaper to purchase, so that it was often less expensive to buy something new than it was to have the broken thing repaired. The coffee pot shattered? It was sometimes only a couple dollars more to buy a new coffee maker versus buying a new coffee pot for the old coffee maker. The old one often wound up at a garage sale, which is at least reusing, or in the trash.
Because of the job situation becoming more fluid, people ended up moving more. That meant that some friendships became disposable. There was just no good way to stay friends with someone who was hundreds of miles away, especially if neither person was a letter writer. Christmas Cards would be exchanged for a couple of years maybe, and then life would get busy and the friendships would disappear. People began making friends for the short term and moving on when either of the people in the relationship physically moved places.
This type of relationship mutated into something a little more sinister. The truly disposable relationship came with a few dates, maybe some sex, but its dissolution always came at a time when one person no longer fulfilled the needs of the other. There was no reason to work on the relationship. One friend dropped the other and moved on to another disposable relationship.
With social media, one might expect the relationships between people to get better. It is easier to stay in touch. It costs only what everyone is paying in Internet fees, meaning that there is no additional money being spent on things like long distance phone calls, care packages or letters. It is easy enough to fire off a mass message to all friends or to send a couple of words just to let a specific friend know that you were thinking of him or her.
Social media has also made it easier to get rid of your friends making our society a Delete and Disengage Society.
However, it was one of the moves that made GE one of the most profitable countries in the world. It also made the employee-career relationship disposable. No longer could workers plan on having job that would fund their retirement as well. In fact, some companies fired employees on the cusp of becoming vested in retirement, so the company wouldn’t have to fund the retirement.
Jobs weren’t the only things that were disposable. Everything became cheaper – more cheaply made and cheaper to purchase, so that it was often less expensive to buy something new than it was to have the broken thing repaired. The coffee pot shattered? It was sometimes only a couple dollars more to buy a new coffee maker versus buying a new coffee pot for the old coffee maker. The old one often wound up at a garage sale, which is at least reusing, or in the trash.
Because of the job situation becoming more fluid, people ended up moving more. That meant that some friendships became disposable. There was just no good way to stay friends with someone who was hundreds of miles away, especially if neither person was a letter writer. Christmas Cards would be exchanged for a couple of years maybe, and then life would get busy and the friendships would disappear. People began making friends for the short term and moving on when either of the people in the relationship physically moved places.
This type of relationship mutated into something a little more sinister. The truly disposable relationship came with a few dates, maybe some sex, but its dissolution always came at a time when one person no longer fulfilled the needs of the other. There was no reason to work on the relationship. One friend dropped the other and moved on to another disposable relationship.
With social media, one might expect the relationships between people to get better. It is easier to stay in touch. It costs only what everyone is paying in Internet fees, meaning that there is no additional money being spent on things like long distance phone calls, care packages or letters. It is easy enough to fire off a mass message to all friends or to send a couple of words just to let a specific friend know that you were thinking of him or her.
Social media has also made it easier to get rid of your friends making our society a Delete and Disengage Society.