No one needs a new phone every two years

[Barstow Cowboy]

I saw this website for this movie about how digital devices are DESIGNED to break at specified intervals, thus requiring us to replace them with the better, faster newer model that just HAPPENS to be put on the market at the same time as our old ones were designed to die. The name of it is Death by Design, here's the website:

http://deathbydesignfilm.com

The point of the documentary is that this never ending flow of devices is wreaking lethal environmental havoc on the planet and is contributing to human misery in all the places where materials are mined to keep building these devices, and also contributing to near slave like working conditions where these devices are produced.

It got me to thinking...no one NEEDS the latest and the greatest gadgets, do they? Why, they no more need a new iPhone than I need a rifle that shoots 30 caliber clipazines in 1/2 of 1 second, right? Well, let me walk that last part back a little bit. Maybe our military and police and certain government employees need these deadly, high speed assault computers, but certainly the average user can get by with say, an old iPhone 2. Maybe there ought to be a law that says you can only get a new device every 10 years or so, or sooner if you get approval from your local tech enforcement officer.

This is no joke, according to this documentary there are REAL lives being lost, and countless more being ruined in a never ending quest to get the latest thing, and these things die at specified intervals just to drive the market for replacement things. This is reckless and unsustainable. The government must do something to protect us from our own destructive greed.

No one NEEDS these death devices. It's time that mother governess put a stop to our childish and deadly behavior.

[boltmopar]

No one does need a new phone every two years just like they don't sports cars or luxury cars because basic models will do the same job of transporting you. But that is not my call and what makes this country great is being able to purchase what you want. It's not my place to tell you how to spend your money nor is it yours to tell me how to spend.

[rromeo]

I keep my phones until they break. My Samsung GS3 still works, but the charging port does not work.

[sealocan]

"Planned obsolescence" has with been with us since the very early days of the production of the lightbulb.

I'm not sure what can be done except not to buy those products, and even that would need to be a large percentage of the consumers to work together in refusing to purchase.

[Cody805]

I have a antique iPhone 4s
Still works, never broke a screen or had any problems.... If it works why change?

[Bainter1212]

I have a Samsung S3 that is approaching 3 yrs old. The charging port is nearly useless now.
Another issue is apps and the upgrades to apps. I had to disable updates because every app wants you to update every month, which means clogging up my phone with more and more megabytes with each update. I was running out of storage space.

[BajaJames83]

I only get a new phone when my current one breaks.
Bonus is our credit card insures our cell phones if we auto pay with it. They will replace 2 phones a year up to $600 only needed it once so far. Very nice feature to have

[DevilDawgJJ]

In to get my post count up, as this should be in OT.

[wpage]

Planned obsolescence is guarded by competition in the marketplace...

[CessnaDriver]

Endless thirst for more bandwidth and the technologies that facilitate that, faster processors, multitasking, better cameras, etc etc etc.
The market drives a lot of demand... the insatiable thirst for the next gadget by consumers.
Honestly I think few ever get to having the device die, they want the latest cool phone.

[d4v0s]

I manage a fleet of cell phones, 2500 computers from various manufacturers and projectors. In the last ten years exactly one set of devices all died at the same time. The Infocus projectors we ordered for 50+ rooms.

The problem was so bad that Infocus replaced them all free of charge. But that was a design flaw not planned death dates to sell more projectors.

With well over 7500 devices in circulation I can assure you that this does not exist. No "thing" ever dies at the same time. We have ten year old computers that run as well as their new counterparts. We have iPhone 4s running next to iPhone 6p phones.

No tech person would trust a company that did this. We all log and map trends in our equipment, it would be painfully obvious if this was occurring.

Now I like your points a lot, it's true that phones are drenched in the blood of factory workers, and the places where materials are mined are not where you want to live.

My only hesitation is, do we really want to start banning everything just to spite them? I would rather take this battle to the courts than resort to "an eye for an eye" type tactics

[beanz2]

I saw this website for this movie about how digital devices are DESIGNED to break at specified intervals, thus requiring us to replace them with the better, faster newer model that just HAPPENS to be put on the market at the same time as our old ones were designed to die. The name of it is Death by Design, here's the website:

http://deathbydesignfilm.com

The point of the documentary is that this never ending flow of devices is wreaking lethal environmental havoc on the planet and is contributing to human misery in all the places where materials are mined to keep building these devices, and also contributing to near slave like working conditions where these devices are produced.

It got me to thinking...no one NEEDS the latest and the greatest gadgets, do they? Why, they no more need a new iPhone than I need a rifle that shoots 30 caliber clipazines in 1/2 of 1 second, right? Well, let me walk that last part back a little bit. Maybe our military and police and certain government employees need these deadly, high speed assault computers, but certainly the average user can get by with say, an old iPhone 2. Maybe there ought to be a law that says you can only get a new device every 10 years or so, or sooner if you get approval from your local tech enforcement officer.

This is no joke, according to this documentary there are REAL lives being lost, and countless more being ruined in a never ending quest to get the latest thing, and these things die at specified intervals just to drive the market for replacement things. This is reckless and unsustainable. The government must do something to protect us from our own destructive greed.

No one NEEDS these death devices. It's time that mother governess put a stop to our childish and deadly behavior.

The government doesn't care. You can't fight tyranny with iPhone 6. Upgrade away.

[skosh69]

Why is this thread in the general gun discussion area???

[jeffyhog]

I've seen the Apple fanatics waiting for the release of new products. Putting restrictions on them would certainly bring about the second Civil War.

[Barstow Cowboy]

I guess no one got the sarcasm

Why is this thread in the general gun discussion area???

This is in the gun area because anti's and grabbers are always asking why we NEED AR's and AK's. I think it'd be a great idea to come back and ask them why they NEED new phones and computers, and when they invariably counter with, "Well, my phone doesn't have the ability to kill anyone..." you counter with all the evidence in this movie that their device most likely has a higher body count than any of your guns ever will.

People keep on taking things from us and saying we don't need them, and devices are things that basically EVERYONE has that they don't need and that can be said to be harmful to others.

I guess I should've stated that in the OP.