![Keelan 1](../../../wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Keelan-1.jpg)
Amberly Keelan
![Keelan 1](../../../wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Keelan-1.jpg)
I use several technological devices daily. I could not live without my iPhone. I use it constantly to text as well as to check my emails and social media accounts. I use my iPad regularly to do readings for class or surf the web. I also often watch Netflix before bed on my iPad. Another device I use daily would be my laptop. I have a MacBook Pro, which I use for schoolwork as well as to browse the Internet. At work I use a Dell laptop, to access the server’s files and to use different computer programs. Quite frequently I will also use my family’s desktop computer, which is also a Mac. I use this whenever I need to use the printer.
My need for technological devices has changed over time. I started using our home computer in 2004. When the 2nd generation iPod Nano came out in 2006 it was the present to get for Christmas that year. When I go to use this iPod now it seems so out of date, but at the time I couldn’t imagine anything better. I received my first cell phone the summer of 2008 before I started high school. This was so I could keep in touch with both my parents and friends. I got my first laptop for Christmas in 2011. It was a mini laptop to use for schoolwork because I had taken over the family computer. Reflecting on how I got my devices, every single one was bought brand new.
I have updated my phone twice. The first phone I had was a LG Rumor. I wore out two keyboards in two years before upgrading to a Blackberry Pearl Flip. In 2012 I wanted an iPhone. I waited and watched as new generations came out and I finally got the new iPhone 4S, which I am still using. Being the broke student I am today I have to wait for my plan to be eligible for an upgrade or I would get the iPhone 5S right now!
In 2012 I also upgraded my laptop. Because I was going away to school, I needed a bigger laptop than the mini so I got a 15” MacBook Pro. After using the laptop for a year, I realized that I should have gone with with the 13” because it would be lighter to take to class. My mom wanted my laptop so I got a new 13” and she is using my 15”. I don’t think that I will need to replace my laptop until it dies
I tend to want to update a device when a newer version of a product I have comes out. Every time a new generation of the iPhone comes out I want it. Why? Because it is better.
Now that we have become so dependent on our smart phones there are other devices that we have thrown aside. I rarely use my camera any more because I have a great camera on my phone so I don’t need it. Even if I do want to bring it somewhere, I almost always forget it and I end up using my phone. I hardly ever use my iPod anymore because I just use my phone instead.
Even though I have updated my devices or don’t use certain ones as often I haven’t really disposed of anything. I either pass it on to be used by someone else or have kept it. I still have my first Walkman, camera, phone, and iPod sitting in a drawer collecting dust.
I haven’t really considered the environmental effects of my devices since I have yet to disposed of them. Maybe I haven’t disposed of them because I would feel guilty getting rid of all these products that work perfectly fine and because I wanted something new. It is such a waste for all of these products to be unused, but they are no longer up to date, so we over-look them.
* Submission is based on an assignment from COMM2F00: New Media Literacy at Brock University.