Obsolete Technology

In class Friday we spoke about dated technology and how the innovation curve has grown exponentially over the past decade.  When I was a kid, technological advances seemed to be at a stand still.  People would hold onto cell phones for 3-5 years and, for the most part, there was only one major operating system people had for their home computers.  I can remember when my dad got the new and improved Windows 98- we went from using colossal floppy disks to the 3.5 inch floppy drives, not to mention a processor strong enough to play Zoombinis and Jump Start 1^st Grade without crashing.  The concept of upgrading to a new, better device was such an enigma.  Oh, how times have changed! Newer is better.  Products are now designed to be smaller, lighter, sleeker, and faster than the predecessor.  This is congruent with what I experience and see today.  It only takes a rumor from Silicon Valley for an increased battery life and half megapixel improvement for people to throw their phones to the curb and camp outside the apple store as if it were black Friday.  With this growing pattern, most devices only see a fraction of the life they would have had a decade ago.  While I think the innovative curve is a huge component to this, I also think the saying ‘they don’t make them like they used to’ holds true.  With a better understanding of material science and revolutionized assembly methods, companies can produce products using a fraction of the materials- which in turn cuts down on the cost to produce each individual device, while at the same time making them more susceptible to damage and shorter life spans.

While these kinds of advances are great for the market, it contributes to a very large scale problem called Electronic Waste.  In a segment that 60 minutes did back in 2008, they estimated that the U.S. alone throws out about 130,000 computers everyday, on top of the 100 million cell phones we dispose of each year.  It is the fastest growing component of the global municipal waste stream.  With a majority of the hardware containing toxins such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and chromium- you can see how this is an epidemic when they are being disposed of at an exponential rate.  As these products sit in land fills, the toxins over time can seep out into the ground, atmosphere, and drinking water, affecting the local communities with known dangers such as reproductive disorders, kidney damage, and cancer.

Having known previously what I now know about electronic waste, I would have made a much stronger point for myself and my friends to recycle old technology rather than throwing it out.  Devices like cell phones could be sold back into the market as refurbished; the male connection to a USB flash drive could be recycled and used towards new products.  There are many possibilities as to how we can minimize our industrial footprint in the world; the only thing lacking in most cases is the awareness needed to make a difference.