Now that the “maker movement” of 3-D printers and laser cutters is in full swing, Clive Thompson wants to see a “fixer movement” catch up:
In the 20th century, U.S. firms aggressively promoted planned obsolescence, designing things to break. Buying new was our patriotic duty: “We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace,” marketer Victor Lebow wrote in 1955. … Today e-waste has become one of the fastest-growing categories of refuse. We chucked out 2.4 million tons of it in 2010 and recycled just 27 percent. And “recycling” often means shipping electronics overseas, where the toxic parts pollute developing countries. It’s a mess. A fixer movement could break this century-old system. …
[T]he ecosytem for fixing has never been better. YouTube has plenty of how-to-fix-it videos; sites like iFixit sell parts and post repair guides for tech new and old. Better yet, the advent of cheap 3-D printers makes new types of repairs possible. In Chicago, Ally Brisbin runs a repair night at her cafè9 and says, “My boyfriend brings in his MakerBot, so if you need a part he can print it.”
Alan Jacobs has also noticed the decline in repair that followed the tech boom:
Thompson focuses on repairing and restoring electronics, especially computers — but he begins by talking about a toaster oven. Maybe that’s where we should start, those of us who’d like to be better fixers: with mechanical things, machines that are electrically simple — or barely electrical at all, like lawn mowers. But as Thompson notes, to do any of this is to work against the grain of modern manufacturing culture. Consider what the electronification of automobile engines has done to the great American tradition of tinkering under the hood. Repair has become unAmerican.
The Dish 