Opinion: “Upgrading”

I might have some luddite sympathies.

I had a Honda Fit for ten years. I loved that car. I don’t love cars in general. THAT car was my special happy car. In 2017, I got rear-ended and was told replacing the bumper was within $200-300 of totaling my car. It was logical we look at “new” (used, but new to us) cars versus risking loosing ALL the value of the car for a downpayment.

Honestly, we have had great experiences with Carmax. It was fine. It was heart breaking. I “upgraded” to a crossover SUV and then about a year later we “upgraded” again to a minivan.

This has not been an “upgrade” for me. Going from my Fit which was fun, and beautiful, and responsive…. to the hulking body of a minivan (and my Kia is better than the other brands we tried) is still…. it isn’t an upgrade.

The only features I wanted (and got) in my mini-van that are upgrades are Android Auto and push-to-start. Which were not available when I got my Fit in 2007, so although they were upgrades it would be like saying getting seatbelts in the 1990s was an “upgrade” from a Model T (ok, that might be a stretch).

There are a bunch of “features” in my car that I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen if I had a real choice. To get push-to-start I HAD to “upgrade” to the model which has leather seats (honestly I do NOT like). I couldn’t get a sunroof (it only came on lower models???). I got larger (and more expensive) tires. The only upgrade I cared about is drowned in features I either don’t care about or actively dislike.

Aside: Leather seats are AWFUL in Georgia summers. Even wearing jeans, they get HOOOOT. Hell, cloth seats get hot, but if your skin accidentally brushes against the seat you don’t end up with an actual 1st degree burn. Much less something like wearing shorts. Seriously. The worst. And the whole “easy to clean” thing is just marketing IMO – get a damn removable cover and wash it once in awhile if you need to.

My phone stopped holding charge correctly this winter. I got 2-3 hours AT MOST (even not using it at all). It was time to “upgrade.” Better camera(?), better screen(?), new battery although with all those other “more POWAH” features like screen it doesn’t last as long as my previous phone. My old phone before the battery started to fail could let me listen to music/books ALL DAY and still hold ~20% charge.

And then there is the giant debate: the audio jack. My new phone requires bluetooth for headphones. Requires because it doesn’t have an audio jack. This means if I want to listen to my audiobook while I work all day…. I have to have bluetooth headphones that can handle it or multiple pairs. When I had an audiojack if I needed to conserve my battery a bit, I could turn off bluetooth and wifi and still listen.

And I am not an expert. I have no idea what percentage of battery my bluetooth uses across my phone versus the actual processing of the audio. I know it’s more than zero, and honestly when you look down and your phone is at 20% power and you still have 5 hours in your day…. more than zero is enough to help.

My laptop is getting “old” (more than 5, maybe 7?) and I keep getting these lovely messages from Microsoft Updates that it isn’t able to upgrade to Windows 11. I finally upgraded my PC, and honestly… I lost one of my FAVORITE features. I have 2 monitors and I like to my task bar in the “gutter” between the 2 monitors (like along a book’s gutters). Well, in Windows 11…. your task bar can only be along the bottom. I lose one of my top 3 favorite features of Windows.

“Upgrades” people… I know this post might be a bit whiny. Maybe I’m getting old. I still can usually figure out remotes at least.