Craze called "New"

There is a serious disorder floating around the world and we all are facing it. Especially the ones from the so called internet developed nations ..and especially the species called Designers.

Its the madness called "New". The rapid growth of choices brought into our lives after the industrial revolution has created a behavior that is so deep rooted in us that most of the times we ignore it.
We all are akin to the state of novelty at short instances of time. And as much as it may be affecting the very souls who have to create these "new things" it equally has become a fad among every citizen of this so called progressed world.

We all want new clothes, new products , new information, new posts and new entertainment at such fast rates that we also have a strong desire for a New Self at such rapid paces, that the idea of constant is passe.

Some of the skeptics may ask me why, whats wrong in innovative thinking....trust me i am not against innovation. Especially as a designer we all need to be innovating...but innovation and the fad for new are sort of, not the same thing. Our marketing strategies, our business strategies our design strategies are revolving around the sole throughput point of NEW. The state of constant desire to see hear or do something new is becoming a basis of human evolution. But we surely are missing something in this run to novelty.

Its like teenage years of getting attracted to newer people and newer experiences, the world of technology has been hooked on mere Newness of the product. A constant pleasing behavior to balance so called corporate ladder or even making people happy just for the sake of momentary pleasure. How are we better than the others, how do we provide the next version the next update the next experience are questions dangling on the heads of designers even before the completion of the current version. The rate at which our operating systems change or even the apps within them...oh and even our phones on the outside has become a crazy modern day ritual. But do we realize that as designers what we are actually doing is going against the basics of designing for the users need... what we are designing and even creating is a world of desires. Its like instant food...it gives you the feeling that you are full and you get the food instantly. And guess what you even feel that its tasty, but remember its not healthy and in the long run will never allow you to develop a taste for the real food. Quick and fast novelty is the flavour of every season currently.

The quest for novelty is not a bad one...but a madness for absolute novelty at every moment is like depending on drugs. The constant fear of boredom and disallowing our body to even go near it..is a real risk we are giving our users as designers. It has been proven time and again that having boredom is critical to our thought process. And the same is applicable to the very brains of us designers.
Designers need to get bored to create something actually unique....our efforts to create constant titillation is actually a marketing practice that has brought us to a space of becoming jokers in the circus of faddish novelty. The value of deep thinking, and patient efforts is far more powerful to human kind than merely producing the glitter of Novelty and addicting people to them.

We all need to get out of the state of created random novelty that is giving us instant gratification as designers as well as users. As designers we all want to be part of that "new" device project or as users we all want to showcase the world that we have the "new" thing. But in short its our shallow selves that we are advertising and proclaiming the victories of half baked battles. In the movie Idiocracy the future is depicted as a dumb place with people as novelty triggered puppets. Little to our realization if not all at-least part of our society is transforming into that space.


But again every society does need novelty, and as designers we have a responsibility to contribute to it. But understanding the thin line between mere novelty and focussed innovation is the necessity of the hour...or else we soon will forget a state of mind called boredom and hence wont have genuine novelty any more...