The document discusses the trend of people buying new things instead of repairing old items. There are several causes of this trend, including busy lifestyles leaving little time for repairs, high repair costs sometimes exceeding new replacement costs, and heavy advertising influence leading people to believe new purchases will improve their lives. This trend has negative effects such as increased waste and pollution, harming both the environment and public health. While modern lifestyles consume more goods than in the past, the document questions whether continual new purchases truly lead to greater happiness compared to maintaining and repairing existing possessions.

1. Question: People today often buy new things instead of fixing the old things. Discuss the causes
and effect of this. (What are the causes of this trend? What do they affect on themselves and
others? )
Nothing last forever. This can be implied in our daily items such as electronic devices,
furniture, clothes and so on as they will be unable to function after a period of time. In this era of
globalization, people prefer to buy new things instead of repairing the old ones. This act is
gradually becoming a trend in the modernized era. There are many causes that leads to this
trend including hectic lifestyle, cost and the influence from mass media.
Firstly, the hectic lifestyle that people are living today contributes to them purchasing
new things rather repairing the old ones. People nowadays tend to be engrossed in their
working life.They work for long hours and some even work overtime. As such, they barely have
time to spare besides working. When their daily items are not functioning, they will immediately
purchase a new one instead of repairing it. This is because sending the item for repairing takes
time and it is inconvenient to travel back and forth for the store. In addition, the process of
repairing takes a few days to complete. Hence, buying a new one to replace the spoiled item is
less troublesome.
Besides, the cost of repairing for certain products can be expensive. Sometimes, fixing a
cracked screen for a smart TV might cost more or less the same than buying a brand new one.
On the other hand, the money you would spend repairing your old device could actually get you
something new. For instance, instead of getting the cracked screen fixed, maybe you can spend
slightly more and purchase a brand new TV with better quality and features. Plus, the new TV
bought comes with a warranty of two years and it is more durable compared to the old one.
Moreover, it is not guaranteed that the repaired item will be able to function well for a long time.
There are cases whereby the item will have to be repaired multiple times and the total cost of
repairing it exceeds the price of a new item. Therefore,
On average, we are exposed to approximately 5000 advertisements per day. The forms
of advertisement includes illustration, TV commercial, radio commercial, signboards and
banner. We see and listen to these advertisement almost everyday in our lives. When every
advertisement carries similar message, people tend to believe that their lives will be better if
they buy the new product that has been advertise. Consequently, we will get influenced by the
message conveyed through the advertisement without any hesitations. This is not a complete
condemnation of the marketing industry, this is simply a call to realize their message affects us
more than we realize. So, when we find something broken or spoiled, we will purchase the
products that have been advertise for no reason. As a result, we are more susceptible to
advertising than we believe.
This trend has result in a significant increase of waste disposal such as furniture, old
electrical appliances and daily items. This indirectly causes pollution to the environment with the
accumulation of unwanted spoiled items. When the environment is polluted, our health will be
affected as well.Health issues like cough, fever and headache may occur frequently. Besides,
people will be unable to live in a clean and comfortable environment due to the over
contaminated surroundings.

2. To conclude, the average Malaysian home size has grown from 1000 square feet to
2500 square feet. Personal generates more than RM 15 million in revenue each year. Report
indicates we consume twice as many material goods today as we did 50 years ago. This
numbers should causes us to start asking some difficult questions of ourself. Why do we often
buy new things instead of fixing the old things? There is more joy to be found in owning less
than can ever be discovered in pursuing more.