Introduction:
You all probably think that technology is pretty rad. You all probably love having cellphones and laptops. To many people, technology feels like magic. Well let me ask you this, have you ever broken your cellphone? Were you able to repair it yourself? See, that is the inherent problem with modern technology, it is nearly impossible to repair on your own. I want to help you realize why newer is not always better. The average person does not realize that many tech companies take advantage of the consumer, use predatory business practices and all around do not have your best interests at heart.
Roadmap:
Today, I hope to show you all some problems with the modern tech industry, how things got like this and some ways we could all work to help solve the problem.
I Problems:
The average consumer believes in the false assumption that newer technology is lightyears better that tech that was manufactured 10-20 years ago, all the while the advent of newer technology has caused new problems that negatively impact the consumer. 15 years ago, you would buy a product and you were able to fix it when it breaks, because you owned it. In modern day, at home repair is easier said than done. Companies like Apple and Samsung have put policies in place that make it impossible to purchase new parts essential for component-level repair. Apple has even been in multiple class action lawsuits regarding them purposefully slowing down their older phones, forcing you to purchase a new one. Apple even artificially inflates the cost of their repairs and fear mongers about independent repair companies. Apple often tells their consumers that independent repair companies are unsafe and will steal your data, this has never been reported to have happened. However, Apple’s own authorized repair technicians have been caught texting explicit pictures from a customer's phone to himself. The BBC claims that this incident will,”add weight to the growing Right to Repair movement in the US, which argues that devices such as iPhones should not be locked into official repair shops.” And I couldn’t agree more. You probably think that a lot of this is messed up. Well, too bad, because a lot of times you can’t do anything about it. Companies, such as Samsung, have clauses written into their Terms of Use that force you into arbitration. Being in an arbitration agreement waives your right to sue the company, and you probably didn’t know you ever agreed to one of the clauses because no one ever reads the Terms of Use.
II Problems:
Many modern tech companies participate in predatory business practices such as locking features of a product that were promised in the products advertising behind a paywall or subscription years after the release of the product. Sometimes, like in the case of the Spotify Car Thing, the product is entirely bricked only a few years after release, with no way for the consumer to connect the product that they paid for to a personal server that allows them to continue to use their product. These are simply problems that did not exist 15 years ago. When a belt in my VHS player breaks, I can simply buy a cheap replacement belt online. If a single component of your iPhone fails, Apple authorized service providers are barred from doing component level repair due to their contracts with apple. Not to mention how Apple will not allow their screen manufacturers to sell their screens to independent repair people, causing the consumer to often only be able to go to Apple to receive repairs. Newer tech is not better. Modern tech companies are oftentimes extremely predatory and this negatively affects consumers by wasting their time and money. This entire situation reminds me of a quote from the book Dune by Frank Herbert. Herbert wrote,"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." The book Dune was published in 1965 and sadly that quote is extremely applicable to today's world.
History:
Let's look back and see where this problem started. In the 1900s it was incredibly normal to buy replacement parts for things and do repairs yourself. Not to mention, things were made to last a long time so they were built to be repaired. The Ford Model T required oil changes every 1000 miles, and thus was built so you could easily change the oil yourself. Now cars are much more advanced, every new car has a computer in it. In certain cars, if you as much as change your battery it can cause problems in the way your car is programmed, pretty much requiring you to go to a service provider to avoid potential issues.
Solutions:
You may want to know if there is any way we can change things. Well there's a few things you can do. For one, you can support organizations such as FUTO or Stop Killing Games. Stop Killing Games is an organization that believes the consumer owns what they’ve bought. They believe that games organizations should not be allowed to kill support for games without giving the consumer a way to still access the thing they paid for. FUTO is a for-profit organization that seeks to fund independent tech companies that believe in privacy and the rights of consumers. FUTO believes that people should have control over technology and not corporations. According to FUTO CEO Eron Wolf,”The goal of FUTO was to remedy the abuses of big tech through targeted software development.”
If you think that all that is too complicated there is one other very easy thing you can do; vote with your wallet. It's as easy as it sounds. Simply, do not financially support companies known for scummy, anti consumer behavior. You could use old tech as opposed to buying the next new thing. You could buy physical media instead of supporting streaming services known for predatory business practices and taking away movies that you have bought and paid for. If enough people do this, companies will start to take notice and maybe they will finally listen. At the end of the day, a corporation will never listen until it affects their bottom line. Maybe one day we can return to a world where you own the things you’ve bought.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, modern technology is much worse than technology of old simply due to the way modern technology companies behave in regardance to the rights of the consumer. Do you really want to support an industry that takes advantage of you, wastes your time and money and uses tactics that are actively anti-consumer? That is why I personally believe that people should begin using older technologies in order to signal to corporations that we know what they're doing and we don't like it.
Sources:
“Apple Pays Millions in IPhone-Repair Explicit Photo Case.” BBC News, 8 June 2021, www.bbc.com/news/technology-57399627.
Stern, Joanna. “How the “Right to Repair” Might Save Your Gadgets—and Save You Money.” Wall Street Journal, 30 Aug. 2021, www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-right-to-repair-might-save-your-gadgetsand-save-you-money-11630324800.
Gerken, Tom. “Apple Pays out over Claims It Deliberately Slowed down IPhones.” Www.bbc.com, 8 Jan. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/technology-67911517.
Allyn, Bobby. “Apple Agrees to Pay $113 Million to Settle “Batterygate” Case over IPhone Slowdowns.” NPR, 18 Nov. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936268845/apple-agrees-to-pay-113-million-to-settle-batterygate-case-over-iphone-slowdowns.
Scott, Ross. “Stop Killing Games.” Www.stopkillinggames.com, www.stopkillinggames.com
Wolf, Eron. “FUTO.” FUTO, 2024, www.futo.org
---. “Thoughts on “the Open Source Definition.”” Thoughts on “the Open Source Definition,” 2024, futo.org/blog/thoughts-on-open-source/. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.
The Repair Association. “History.” The Repair Association, www.repair.org/history.
Mickle, Tripp, et al. “You Paid $1,000 for an IPhone, but Apple Still Controls It.” The New York Times, 12 Nov. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/technology/iphone-repair-apple-control.html.
AutoZone. “Electrical Issues after Replacing Car Battery.” AutoZone, 18 Aug. 2023, www.autozone.com/diy/electrical/electrical-issues-after-replacing-car-battery. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.