Week 4: Phone Use and Re-use

     This weeks presenter discussed phones, and how resources are put into creating the amazing devices we use today. The morale behind the discussion was around the ethics behind our cell phones. Weird right? You would think this discussion/presentation would head towards the social media direction, or that we are too glued to our screens. In a way it, somewhat is, as we have made these devices so important in our lives. However, it was more so on the technical development of our devices, and the intensive labor that goes into making them.

I found it very interesting when Mr. Redekopp brought up the recyclable phones with exchangeable parts. I find that interesting because I think that its highly resourceful, and avoids us throwing out our phones every two years. But, how many people would you actually convince to use this? At the end of the day, Apple dominates the communication market with phones, so unless they get on board with this, it puts a hinderance on making money. Unfortunately, this how the world works right now. They don't care if its "safe," they want your money. 

What does this mean for the future? Hopefully the phones that are being made with replaceable parts makes it SO easy that it will become the new niche. It really depends a lot on where we are at in term of what we want as a society. We are constantly evolving, and at times, reverting. I think this could be a very positive change for the future of phone devices, but the difficulty lies within selling it. 

Comments

  1. Miss. Alicia Bueckert30 January 2021 at 20:39

    Very good points Osian! Mr. Redekopp's presentation title lead me to think that we would talk about how to integrate more technology into our classrooms and that we aren't giving students enough opportunities to use it. I am glad that he didn't teach us what I assumed his talk was going to be about. Instead, he raised up an ethical issue that needs to be talked about more in main stream news and our general society. Prior to his talk, I had not thought about how much dangerous work occurred in order to access the materials needed to make our products. I just cared that my phone had a working battery and when the battery life started to deplete, I would justify purchasing a new phone that was often upgraded with better features than my old one. This conversation has changed my view on how often I need to upgrade my own phone. Like you, I believe that it will be difficult to convince mainstream society to change. I also know that education is an opportunity to change the world so I am confident that if you, myself, and our colleagues start to have this conversation with our students, we will start to change the world's ideologies around how often we change our phones and the importance of safe working conditions for ALL. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Osian!

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  2. Chayse W31 January 2021 at 19:16

    Really good read! Replaceable parts are a great idea I think to keep E waste down. Companies like Apple have 0 replaceable parts or if you want to replace something like a broken screen it’s almost more expensive to do that then get a new phone. And that’s exactly the plan, so we keep buying new. This creates a lot of E waste just so they can make more money but this issue needs to be solved!

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  3. Joshua Ferguson3 February 2021 at 15:27

    Osian, great points and reflection on our class last week. I too, talked about making phones with replaceable parts. Some constructive criticism for you: Add images or videos to your blog.

    Anyways,
    Cheers
    JF

    ReplyDelete

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