{"id":32117,"date":"2026-03-12T13:12:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T12:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?p=32117"},"modified":"2026-03-13T07:13:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:13:01","slug":"why-we-cant-have-nice-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2026\/03\/why-we-cant-have-nice-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Can&#8217;t Have Nice Things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve owned antique or vintage furniture or appliances, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ve noticed how durable these old items are. And when compared to modern devices, the difference is night and day\u2014newer technology breaks and bends as easily as paper, while older stuff sometimes feels as durable as tanks. But how can it be possible for newer items to be worse than older ones? Shouldn&#8217;t newer technology create better and more durable items? But in reality, most of the appliances, furniture, and tools being sold to us now are specifically designed to be weak and frail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To find out more about planned obsolescence, watch the video below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"This is why we can&#039;t have nice things\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j5v8D-alAKE?wmode=transparent&amp;rel=0&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Vocabulary Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What is a <strong>\u201cfringe idea\u201d<\/strong>?\u00a0<em>\u201cNow, this might sound like a wild, <strong>fringe idea<\/strong>, but people were clearly afraid of being put out of work by technological progress and products that were too good.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Use this term in a sentence. Give a similar expression.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does\u00a0<strong>\u201c<strong>overnight sensation<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>mean?<em>\u00a0<\/em>\u201c<em>In the 1940s, the synthetic nylon replaced silk in stockings and it was so durable that the products became an <strong>overnight sensation<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Use this expression in a sentence. Give a similar expression.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does \u201c<strong>to<\/strong> <strong>get one&#8217;s hands on<\/strong> <strong>something<\/strong>\u201d mean? <em>\u201cThere were riots when women tried <strong>to<\/strong> <strong>get their hands on<\/strong> <strong>the synthetic nylon stockings<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em> Use this idiom in a sentence. Give a similar expression.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why have companies made their products intentionally worse even though technology has improved?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Discuss the pros and cons of planned obsolescence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is your opinion about dynamic obsolescence?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have you noticed examples of planned and dynamic obsolescence on some products around you before? If so, give details on what you&#8217;ve noticed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Share your thoughts on this statement, &#8220;<em>The only type of obsolescence we should support is technological.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate If you&#8217;ve owned antique or vintage furniture or appliances, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ve noticed how durable these old items are. And when compared to modern devices, the difference is night and day\u2014newer technology breaks and bends as easily as paper, while older stuff sometimes feels as durable as tanks. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[291,162,8710,301,292,290,14],"class_list":["post-32117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homework","tag-b2-upper-intermediate","tag-business","tag-business-and-business-english","tag-business-english","tag-first-certificate-fce","tag-listening","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why We Can&#039;t Have Nice Things | phone english blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2026\/03\/why-we-cant-have-nice-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why We Can&#039;t Have Nice Things | phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate If you&#8217;ve owned antique or vintage furniture or appliances, there&#8217;s a good chance you&#8217;ve noticed how durable these old items are. And when compared to modern devices, the difference is night and day\u2014newer technology breaks and bends as easily as paper, while older stuff sometimes feels as durable as tanks. 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