Smartphones Are Like Cars. So Why Don't We Maintain Them? by Brian X. Chen
Interesting piece published in the Times a few days ago, relevant to next week's class on waste. Chen goes into the social and psychological reasons for why many choose to replace their phones instead of considering maintenance or repair; he argues that repairing phones would be a more sustainable solution. He does acknowledge that there are hurdles to getting one's phone repaired (over-priced replacement parts, lack of open access to tech/diagnostics, etc.) but is optimistic that these issues will be resolved over time. I was most interested in his discussion of the marketing strategies employed to make upgrading your phone seem like an urgent necessity when, in many cases, it is actually not necessary at all:
"Ruth Mugge, a design professor at Delft and an author of the study, said there was a misperception among people that three and a half years was as long as a phone could last — even among people whose phones were still working beyond that time. This belief, she said, is shaped by an environment that triggers an urge to upgrade. One is the marketing push from phone carriers, which send emails reminding you to trade in your old phone for credit toward a new one. Another is peer pressure, as friends and colleagues replace their phones every few years."
I know that peer pressure well. I kept my iPhone SE for many years. My family got annoyed with my camera quality on FaceTime calls, but even more than that the small size of my phone would drive my sister wild. She couldn't understand how I could use such a small screen. Of course, when I finally gave in and upgraded to the iPhone X was exactly when Apple started reducing the size of their phones.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, your post reminded me of this article covering the work of Josh Lepawsky, who advocates for repurposing old devices and considering recycling only as a last resort: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/09/reuse-old-iphone-recycle-electronic-waste/671459/. I’ve done a couple of these things in the past, like using an old phone as a storage device or setting up an unlimited Zoom call on an old phone that I could join to check in on our dog when I was out of the house. It was surprisingly effective.