Appeal to novelty

"Forget tradition! We're going to work out everything in the world anew!"

The Appeal to Novelty is a logical fallacy in which someone claims that his or her idea or proposal is correct or superior because it is new and modern.

Examples:

"Hovercars are the wave of the future! You should invest all your money in Hovercar stocks." (Hovercars may be futuristic, but that does not nessisarily make them a sound financial investment.)

"This computer was made in 2003, therefore it is far superior to that computer made in 2001." (The date a computer was manufactured has nothing to do with how effective it is.)

Appeals to novelty are often successful in a modern world where everyone is eager to be on the "cutting edge" of technology. The so-called "Dot-com bust" of the early 2000's could easily be interpreted as a sign of the dangers of naively embracing new ideas without first viewing them with a critical eye.

The opposite of an appeal to novelty is an appeal to tradition, in which one argues that the "old ways" are always superior to new ideas.