Each fall, our lives are bombarded with the newest tech releases. The same old devices return with “innovative changes,” 64GB more storage and a $200 markup. With each software update slowly taking up storage, suddenly, the trusty phone that’s stayed faithfully by your side for as long as you can remember doesn’t feel so great anymore.
Technology promises a future of progress, efficiency and sustainability, yet it leaves behind a trail of frustration and waste. Despite portraying itself as benevolent, the tech industry ultimately seeks customer loyalty and money, manipulating and exploiting consumerism for profit and betraying the customers that sustain it in the process.
Consider Apple, headquartered 15 minutes away from MVHS and central to most of our lives. Known for its high brand loyalty and dominance of the U.S. smartphone market, the company built up its customer base through years of ecosystem integration. However, despite offering features such as data transfer and the ability to trade in older phones, it is unclear how the consumer concretely benefits from purchasing new devices often. Such rapid product cycles sacrifice innovation for novelty.
As technological innovation slows, new releases are becoming increasingly similar. A survey from Compare-and-Recycle shows that 66% of people couldn’t correctly identify their iPhone model. Although companies have painted an illusion of progress, they’ve made little to no changes in terms of functionality, only tweaking features such as phone screen size, storage capacity, and camera quality. Tech companies’ messaging can give consumers the impression that they’re making a tangible improvement in their lives, when the main impact they’re making is lining tech billionaires’ pockets.
Apple is only one of many companies that utilize marketing campaigns, generating demand for new releases to increase profit, but warping consumer perception. These advertisements promote the materialist fallacy that owning a certain brand or the newest model will make consumers happy, playing into emotional appeal to drive audiences towards impulsive purchases.
In the era of big data, where individual interest is tracked for targeted advertising, the influence of these campaigns is magnified. According to the Institute of Data, targeted advertising, with the aid of social media, results in a 37% increase in purchases. The aggressive promotion of newer products causes perceived obsolescence, the psychological effect in which people perceive fully functional products as outdated and faulty. Customers influenced by external factors such as perceived obsolescence through marketing are also often swayed by an ingrained sense of brand loyalty, simply purchasing a product for the association of brand personality rather than functionality.
However, perceived obsolescence isn’t completely unfounded — the technology we purchase today isn’t made to last. The practice of planned obsolescence, deliberately shortening a product’s lifespan to drive purchases, is so normalized among products that many consumers aren’t even aware of it anymore. Hiding in plain sight, planned obsolescence can be found in non-replaceable batteries, dubiously optimized phone storage lacking a clear cache option and aggressively pushed-out software updates, designed to turn devices from durable products into short-lived consumables. While many of these practices remain in the dark, infamous cases such as Apple’s Batterygate in 2016 and Samsung’s S22 update in 2024 have resulted in lawsuits, a handful ending in million-dollar settlements. While the Samsung S22 lawsuit is still in progress, Apple released the iOS 11.3 update to provide more transparency on battery health and offered discounted battery replacements.
Even while disregarding harm to individual consumers, the unethical manipulation from tech companies still cannot justify the volume of e-waste generated by people constantly switching devices. The combined factors of marketing, planned obsolescence and rapid product cycles drive profit for companies at the cost of the environment. Despite being easily preventable, e-waste is a significant source of pollution and poses many health risks. According to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, 62 million tons of e-waste were produced globally in 2022, and only 22.3% of it was recycled.
Often ending up in landfills, degrading devices release thousands of chemicals into the environment, including heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and lithium, many confirmed to be carcinogenic. The manufacturing of technology not only depletes resources but also leaves behind a heavy carbon footprint. According to Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Harvard University Gage Hills, the energy consumed in manufacturing a single computer chip could be greater than the amount of energy the chip consumes over a 10 year period.
While the tech industry, like all omnipresent industries, can’t be avoided or dismantled by individual action alone, everyone can benefit from addressing their consumerist habits. By focusing on the benefits of technology, rather than succumbing to consumer culture, students can cultivate a healthier and more sustainable relationship with devices. The effects of mindful usage are understated but powerful. While updates may minimize your devices’ security vulnerabilities, they also reduce storage, battery life and device performance. When deciding whether to update a device, it’s important to consider these factors. Additionally, keeping a device charged between 20-80% can prolong the battery’s lifespan, allowing for a longer period of usage and fewer swaps, not only saving money but also benefiting the environment.
Living in Silicon Valley, the heart of the tech industry, MVHS students are more openly exposed to tech consumerism than the average American student. However, it is important to consider whether our desire for the newest technology is justified or simply a product of manufactured consumerism. By staying informed on the technology we consume, we can make sure we’re not buying for the sake of buying. Tech consumerism, while a looming problem in the modern age, can be combated by reducing the need for replacements, considering alternatives and making mindful purchases if it ever comes down to buying a device. In the midst of a consumerist society shaped by large corporations, it’s crucial to avoid manipulation by learning to differentiate between manufactured desire and absolute necessity.
