A phone is similar to a car. Parents may allow their children to get one if they deem them mature enough. Financing or leasing is one way to pay for it. Phone models are almost indistinguishable from one year to the next.
There is a major difference between cars and phones in how they are treated. Car owners take their vehicles to a shop for service. People usually replace the entire device when the phone's battery degrades.
Kyle Wiens is the chief executive of iFixit, a website that publishes instructions for repairing electronics. We don't have to do maintenance on electronics like we do with cars.
The average amount of time that people own a car is eight years, compared to three and a half years for a phone upgrade. The life of a phone can be extended to six years.
It is more expensive to replace a phone than it is to the environment. Industrial design experts say that the manufacturing of a phone is energy intensive and often takes place in countries with high carbon emissions.
Why upgrade our phones before we need to?
There is a lot of research going on in this area. The high cost of repairing things is out of our control. There's a big reason. Academics say that understanding the psychology of why we replace phones can help us modify our habits to save money and consume less.
More than 600 people in Western Europe were surveyed by the University of Technology about their recent purchases. People with broken or malfunctioning phones were asked if they had considered repairing.
Slower software or a degraded battery were the most common reasons for replacing a phone. Thirty percent of people who said they had a partly malfunctioning phone said they had considered repairing it.
One of the most common reasons for replacing a phone was that it was time to buy a new phone.
The author of the study said there was a misconception that three and a half years was enough for a phone to work.
She said that this belief is shaped by an environment that makes people want to upgrade. The marketing push from phone carriers is to remind people to trade in their old phones for new ones. Peer pressure is one of the reasons friends and colleagues replace their phones.
People might find you strange if you keep it for a while.
There are few incentives for people to fix things. It is difficult for the average person to fix a phone because it is sealed with glue and tiny screws.
People want to fix their phones when they break, but they face obstacles, according to a study by Consumer Reports. In the last five years, 25 percent of people tried to get their phone fixed but ended up replacing it, while only 16 percent did. The rest didn't try to fix the phone or replace it.
What should I do? It's possible to treat your phone as if it were a car. It is possible to take care of your phone if it is mostly functioning.
The phone doesn't have the helpful reminders that mechanics give to car owners, but you can do it yourself. It's a good idea to set up a calendar event to bring your phone to a repair shop for a fresh battery every three years, because when the battery dies, the phone shuts off after a few hours.
An annual calendar reminder can be used to do a phone check. Simple steps like removing apps and photos from your phone's digital storage can speed up the phone's return.
It's possible that another motivation is doing the math. You can get a new phone battery at a repair shop for about $70. In two years, if you trade in your old phone for a new one, you will get $300 in credit. Over the course of eight years, you will have spent over $2,500 on phones. You'll spend $940 if you hold on to an $800 phone and replace two batteries for $70 each. It adds up to a lot of savings for families with more than one phone.
An author of a book about how our obsession with the new has killed the art of maintenance said that you can remind yourself to practice self-restraint. Resisting the urge to judge others who don't have the newest gadgets is part of that.
There needs to be a cultural shift. We need to think about the bigger picture and not be swayed by the hype.
Some phone problems can be hard to fix. A replacement part for my broken phone cost about $300 from Apple. Buying a replacement might make sense if it costs more than a new device. I paid to fix it because I have a phone.
The situation for repairs is getting better. The FTC cracked down on companies that prevented people from fixing their products. A New York state law requiring tech companies to open access to electronics repair and diagnostics tools is awaiting a signature from the governor.
Repairs are becoming easier as a result of the regulatory movement. Our mind-set needs to be changed.
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