Apple Iphones: Materialism And Blind Consumerism

Apple has released 12 different variants of the iPhone. In 2007, the first apple iPhone was released. Nearly 1.4 million iPhones sold in that year. Over 590 million iPhones have been sold from 2007 to 2014 globally. This is contributing to a disease that is plaguing the world. That disease is materialism and blind consumerism. Apple iPhones are aiding the increase in waste by driving consumers to continually dispose or forget about their still functioning old device and purchase new, expensive products with seemingly little improvements. These advertisements use a variety of “feel good” words to make consumers think that the product they are getting is some wondrous super phone. They claim that each new phone has a new perspective and that

The applications on the iPhones are constantly updated. The applications are updated to support the newest IOS software available. This often causes older phones, which still work fine, to become outdated, because they can no longer support the newest apps. Apple has thousands of developers designing and creating new applications. They focus their work on the newest software, because they know that the new software is what the company will push. They push the new software by continually creating new phones and dropping support for the old ones. This forces people to chase after the latest device and makes people feel like they are being left behind in the game of ever advancing technology. This serves to drive people to purchase the newest phone and leave their old phone sitting in a drawer somewhere, never to be touched

Most of the parts of the phone are not really recyclable. They lose their value quickly because of the ideals of the public that old phones are worthless. Because of this, old phones are typically thrown away or left somewhere forgotten. These discarded phones end up in landfills. Phones will sit in a landfill for hundreds of years before decomposing. The plastic casing itself can take up to 1000 years. While the case is decomposing the metals inside the phone are leaking out and being absorbed into the surrounding environment. Lithium and battery components will also seep into the ground and eventually into waterways. The immediate effect would be decimating local aquatic wildlife populations. This in turn causes those species who prey on the fish to decrease in population. The cycle effects the whole food chain right up to the top. These landfills are usually placed in areas with lower populations. However, when the landfills are put in third world countries, where the local populations depend on the wildlife as a source of food, the effects of these landfills are drastic. The chemical wastes, aside from just killing fish, can also work their way into the drinking supplies of a