But hey Apple geek, do you really need another iPhone?
1. The world discards 20 to 50 million tons of electronic waste every year.
2. Incremental feature upgrades make business sense – it’s driving people to buy, buy, buy. But more products become obsolete easily, leading to more garbage.
3. The sad thing is, the average lifespan of our gadgets makes them useless in just a few years. For cellphones. that’s four years. (Unless you have a 3310, haha.)
Of course, a world without electronics may be unimaginable for a lot of us. (Gasp – I can’t while away time with my boring friends! Actual conversations are death!) So how can we make it more sustainable?
In a time when the world needs efficiency more than ever (think: 3D printing is about revolutionize the way we manufacture things and stem cell research could make medicine more personal), isn’t it about time we stopped waiting every year just so we can hear some marketing guy come up on stage and declare that their minor phone upgrade is so awesome – and we should go panic-buying NOW?
I saw this concept called Phonebloks pop up on my Facebook newsfeed and I thought, this might just be the thing that could topple the clunky behemoth that is the iPhone. It can be easily customized – thus empowering consumers to choose which features they want, when they want it.
Remember when they said that history repeats itself? Well I think the new Industrial Revolution is dead, again. Hello, 21st century Arts and Crafts Movement.
Support the Phonebloks project by clicking here.
