I received my current phone a few months before the start of college (about two years ago). Our old cellular provider, US Cellular, merged with Sprint, so my family and I had to set up a new service plan. I come from quite a large family, and we have six lines, so the deal we settled on was called it the “family plan.” The promise to keep families connected gave the plan a certain appeal, because it drew from the value of the family bond. The deal offered was financially appealing as well, and trading in our old phones would get us iPhones for close to nothing if we signed on for two years. Going in, I wanted to keep the phone I had, but the store did not really afford that desire, with the new phones on display. The iPhones made my well-earned Samsung Messager, my first touchscreen phone, seem ancient. We were told that they would be recycled, and the incentive of getting a new iPhone, and possibly helping the environment was enough to convince me that it was a good choice. Nonetheless, I never had the inclination to inquire about the recycling process, because I could not perceive the phone I purchased on my own as waste. To this day, it is the only device I ever actually disposed of. I still have my first laptop, despite the fact that I never use it.

My mind did not conceptualize my phone as waste, because I was never exposed to the reality of e-waste. As Parikka points out,

The devices are fabricated so that the consumer interpellated in marketing discourses, and attached to the machine at home or at work, is in a ‘protected mode’ (see Kittler, 1997), whereas the people compiling the machines– and dismantling them –are the ones who encounter the raw, dangerous materiality of our media technologies”(Parikka 2012).

We live in a society that shelters us from the reality that e-waste is an extremely relevant issue and poses a threat to other societies.

Two years have now passed since getting my iPhone 4S. Since then, five different versions of the iPhone have been released. I have always been content with my phone, enough that I stuck with it, because nothing has come out to actually replace its functionality with something better. As a college student, the luxury of keeping up with the advances in technology is not an option, and I am forced to maintain the mentality that “These devices are usually only ‘new’ for about six months, after which the monetary value of the machine drops significantly, although typically it still functions as intended” (LeBel 2012). In addition, the concept of newness is always questionable, and there is a degree of skepticism I hold with new products. As Sterne mentions,

“In a weird, recursive way, new media are ‘new’ primarily with reference to themselves. […] Today computers and other digital hardware displace their own counterparts more than anything else. ‘Newness’ in computers is defined with primary references to old computers” (Sterne 2007).

I have been able to recognize this concept, and it has withheld the desire to “upgrade.” Nonetheless, the temptation has been ever-present on a certain level.

The device, which fulfills all my personal needs, still is a source of insecurity, of vacancy. I cannot help but feel as if I am depriving myself of something that will surely make my life easier, despite the lack of evidence that the new features were even capable of doing so. In addition to the feeling of “missing out,” I also feel the urge to upgrade to a new iPhone. As someone who feels a particular attachment the device, it is strictly to the content, rather than the physical device. Nevertheless, the fear of losing any information is irrelevant when it comes to considering a new phone. With Apple, one of the affordances of their devices is the “restore” feature. An iPhone can be backed up, using iTunes on a computer, or digital iCloud storage, and the information can be transferred to another iOS device within minutes. “The digital hardware industry has rationalized, accelerated, and made regular the process of equipment turnover” (Sterne 2010). The device’s affordances are one of the ways the process has been accelerated. The technology results in a shift in the consumer’s relationship to the device. The ease consumers, like myself, to be less attached to the product itself; therefore, the process of switching carries no weight in the eyes of the consumer.

Notice, that I used the word “switching” in reference to upgrading an iPhone. The word choice, and absence of any concept of waste in its connotation, suggests that the idea of disposal is not one that comes to mind with technological devices. The issue is that “We are dealing with abstract relations, but concrete things– and all linked together as real parts of the global capitalist media industry”(Parikka 2012). I wonder now, when my contract ends in a month, whether or not I will be tempted to upgrade. I have no doubt, however, that I will hold the resulting location of my phone with high regard, because our environment simply cannot afford any more oblivion to the e-waste infiltrating it.

* Submission is based on an assignment from COM-02/580-05 Environmental Media. IIT (2014)
20 October 2014

There are other devices in my electronic collection that I use but do not have as much significance to me personally. I use two separate speaker systems, an Asus laptop, an iPod Nano third generation, a Canon Pixma printer, an Xbox 360, a Kindle Touch Glowlight, and a Sony digital camera. Apart from when I have to move these devices from school to home and vice versa, I appreciate every device that I own. There is no doubt in my mind that I would be able to function with just my cellphone and a portable computer but the other devices add a convenience factor to life that is hard to dispose of.

Most of the devices that I own have been purchased myself which makes them even more valuable to me. My parents have always instilled in me the idea that if I want something then I have to work for it. Even when I bought my first iPod in middle school I saved up money from working little league concession stands with my parents who were in charge of the concessions at all the baseball fields. This was the first electronic device that I had ever bought and I still take care of it as if I’d just purchased it.

I received my first cellphone in middle school solely because I had extracurricular activities and needed to call my mom to pick me up. No internet and no texting, just phone calls. When I wanted to upgrade to a smartphone in high school my mom said that if I spent more than one hundred dollars on a new phone then I would have to pick up the difference. I really wanted the best android phone that had just released so I decided I would pay for the other half. Regarding my other devices, I chose my desktop over a laptop the summer before going to college. I was going to major in architecture and thought a bigger screen and more power would be helpful with 3D modelling, and I bought this with the money I received from my high school graduation party. My parents picked up some of the cost but I paid the rest. The iPad mini was given to me through the Illinois Institute of Technology. All freshman receive the newest iPad model their first semester at the university. Because I know that these devices cost a hefty sum of money, I treat them like they need to last for a long time…and they do.

My family has raised me with the idea that computers do not need to be replaced very often. If you take care of them and make sure they stay updated with software and virus scan regularly then they should last at least five years in good condition. My dad is also a big believer in “you get what you paid for” so I tend to buy more expensive devices if I know it’s going to be used often. He also taught me that I need to take care of things that I pay for. This way I am not forced to change devices frequently due to them breaking. I update my phone every 22 months due to my contract with sprint. My family was grandfathered in with a very low rate plan with unlimited everything, and will not give that up to switch to a plan where I would get to upgrade every year, which I am content with. I’ve used the same iPod for workouts since middle school. I actually bought and tried out the newest version of the iPod Nano last spring and it just wasn’t the same as my old iPod with the click –wheel. Thus I returned the new one and will keep my 3rd generation until it no longer works, which I hope doesn’t happen anytime soon.

A few years ago every time I had extra money I would always try to sell my devices and buy the latest version. As I’ve grown older, saving money is more important to me than buying the latest and the greatest. I’ve tried to lock my shopaholic self away and be smart about what I purchase. Over the past couple years I think I’ve made tremendous progress.

My family and I usually get rid of our old devices in the garage sales we have twice a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Someone usually buys it off of us, and if not we just wait to sell it in the next garage sale. The other thing my family has done is leave an old computer at the street and someone would come and pick it up. Lastly, if the device is still in working condition, and I think I’ll be able to make some money then I will list it on eBay and someone will eventually purchase it.

I have three of my previous cellphones in a desk cabinet just in case my phone breaks and I need a replacement and my contract has not expired yet. This way I do not need to pay full price for a new cellphone. This applies to every member of my family. All of our old cellphones are stored in this cabinet just in case. It’s probably not necessary but it’s better than them sitting in some e-waste sight. As far as I can remember I don’t think myself or my family has thrown away an electronic device.

Previous to attending the communications class in which we talked about e-waste, I had absolutely no thoughts about where old technology is disposed of, why people buy technology so often, and the solutions to limit e-waste. Jonathan Sterne wrote a chapter called “Out with the Trash: On the Future of New Media” in the book Residual Media. Within this chapter he states

“I meet an American sailor and I ask him why his country’s vessels are built to last a short time, and he replies to me with-out hesitation that the art of navigation makes such rapid progress daily that the most beautiful ship would soon become almost useless if its existence were prolonged beyond a few years.” (Sterne 21)

Many products seem like they are designed to be thrown out. Besides a few companies that consider design a priority, devices are made of cheap plastic that screams to the user to throw them away after a short usage period. I think that if people feel like their device is cheap then they will not take care of it and replace it more frequently causing even more e-waste.

I have recently learned that there is a massive market for disassembling e-waste and selling the parts for money. I am not talking about taking something into an electronics store or selling a part on eBay. There is an afterlife of electronics that many Americans do not know of. In chapter five of Jennifer Garbys’ Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics she talks about the horrible conditions of e-waste sites and the people that work in them.

“When all working components are extracted, the machines are then stripped for scrap. Copper wires are stripped from their housing, where hours of work may yield mountains of material but only a few dollars in return. Chips are methodically removed from circuit boards and drenched in acid baths to remove specks of gold. Waste pickers strip away at these machines that are not designed for disassembly, uncovering their toxic insides through equally toxic means of removal. They receive for their labor often just enough money to maintain a subsistence-level existence.” (Gabrys 135)

Where electronics go after they are thrown out is not something that most people think of. Little do we know that when someone gets rid of an electronic device it has a major effect on someone else’s life. There is a worker in a different country who has to take that old device and disassemble it in order to make a living. There is major lack of electronic recycling and electronic recycling education in the United States. I think that in order to solve our e-waste issues it all needs to start with the companies that manufacture these devices. Habits will then trickle down to the consumer and toxic e-waste may be reduced.

– Cory Winiecki, October 20, 2014
Works Cited

Jennifer Gabrys (2011) “Media in the Dump: salvage stories and spaces of remainder.” Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Jonathan Sterne (2007) “Chapter 2: Out with Trash: On the Future of New Media.” Residual Media Acland, C. (ed) pp. 16-31.

* Submission is based on an assignment from COM-02/580-05 Environmental Media. IIT (2014)