If people commonly did it years ago & we start doing it again now, why do we say that is something brand new?

Question

If people commonly did it years ago & we start doing it again now, why do we say that is something brand new?

Answer 1

It is a great marketing ploy, people want to be doing the new trend. Knowing what your target market wants helps shape the message. I told my sister I was installing a solar clothes dryer and suddenly she wanted to know all about it. I think if I had told her I was installing a clothes line she would have said I was stupid.  

Answer 2

Well, through the course of human nature, we are a creature that chooses  to evolve and progress. We generally move forward with our innovations. So if we go back to an older form of doing things voluntarily, it's sort of like regression. That could be what makes it a new concept: man opting to regress.  

Answer 3

Its called....cyclical stupidity!

Answer 4

because its brand new to us

Almost everything has been done before.

If you are referring to life style ,

what we call now living green ,recycling

being sustainable

was the norm for most people fore fathers

and things were build to last

, if they got broken they were repaired

shoes got new souls or did we ?

Answer 5

For me this comes down two things, the first is a matter of choice, the second is an understanding or recognition that, we, mankind, are negatively impacting on the natural environment. Perhaps for some this only means consumer awareness, but still, even baby steps are forward steps.

All the things we take for granted in the West, such as abundant consumer goods, car ownership, package holidays, home ownership, low density housing (nuclear families instead of extended ones) etc have an impact  on the natural world and people in other countries.

We now recognize that the jeans we buy in Walmart/Asda at such a low price, have both a human cost (sweatshop wages, fewer health and safety regulations, child labour etc) and an environmental cost and we can CHOOSE, not to buy them because we have access to information that we have never had before.

People did things years ago, because there was no choice. Even relatively recently ago (1960's) my parents had to save up for a stair carpet, fitted carpets were a luxury. They looked for quality because they expected it to have to last a lifetime. They didn't go on on package holidays until the early 1970's. Now they change their carpets frequently and go abroad many times a year.

Choice and consumer knowledge makes it something brand new.