The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months, according to a recent survey by Reviews.org, and that cycle is getting longer. The average was around 22 months in 2016.
While squeezing as much life out of your device as possible may save money in the short run, especially amid widespread fears about the strength of the consumer and job market, it might cost the economy in the long run, especially when device hoarding occurs at the level of corporations.
Research released by the Federal Reserve last month concludes that each additional year companies delay upgrading equipment results in a productivity decline of about one-third of a percent, with investment patterns accounting for approximately 55% of productivity gaps between advanced economies. The good news: businesses in the U.S. are generally quicker to reinvest in replacing aging equipment. The Federal Reserve report shows that if European productivity had matched U.S. investment patterns starting in 2000, the productivity gap between the U.S and European economic heavyweights would have been reduced by 29 percent for the U.K., 35 percent for France, and 101% for Germany.
The idea, that keeping a device for more than two years is “short term” thinking that could doom the economy, is a pretty damning indictment on the state of your economy.
More to the point that news item came from CNBC, itself a company that is 100% advertiser-supported.
Of course they’re going to claim that people not buying is the doom of the economy.
Their whole existence is tied to hyperconsumption, which, is becoming evident to even the marginally aware, of being no longer viable in the long run.
Say after me: “Too bad, so sad…”
NBC is owned by Comcast, who also owns Xfinity and invests in T-Mobile. At some point there is going to be just 3 companies running everything and the courts they own will say they aren’t monopolies
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Why was my first thought who broke Africa, then realized Asia was disconnected as well
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I like the idea that someone would be naming a company Lynch, and selling it to the masses to the point that they own so much
And lifestyle/culture.
Jesus Christ, when did choosing not to throw away a perfectly good device become “device hoarding”?
Gotta love American capitalist propaganda.
the framing on it lmao
“corporation device hoarding”
you mean businesses keeping devices that they KNOW work instead of changing to devices with bullshit new issues created so more of your data can be harvested and you can be advertised to more?
I’ve worked at large (5k+ workers) companies that were running Windows XP well into the late 2010’s, with matching hardware. That was too extreme (goddamn ie6).
But this article makes me sick. If the economy needs people to throw away perfectly usable goods and buy new ones, the problem isn’t the people, it’s the fucking economy. It’s time to take a step back and rethink the system, because it’s gonna implode.
I’ve got a machine running XP and one running 7. Both really only exist due to the software/equipment they’re supporting being abandoned. IT keeps them disconnected from everything else and generally doesn’t like that they exist. Disconnected Lab View licenses are fun though.
Companies act like the general population simply OWES them business. We do not.
On that note, please refuse to participate in Black Friday and keep your Christmas low key and sentimental.
That’s my plan. Primarily food and handmade/carefully picked gifts rather than lavish this year.
Also wtf? How is 2 years “a long time” to hold onto an expensive machine? Mine have been at least 4-5 years between buys. Products are supposed to last.
Specifically, Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, boycott Target, Amazon (including Whole Foods), and Home Depot even harder than usual: https://weaintbuyingit.com/
I buy my upgrades used on ebay. Check your seller before buying, of course, but that does mean more money in the pockets of people who are trying to get rid of unneeded stuff.
Great tip. Getting things used is a great way to give in a little bit less to capitalist wealth pumps.
They think Jeff Bezos is still the CEO of Amazon. Not very well-informed …
That’s your takeaway?
Do you have a problem with my observation?
Clearly.
Is there a reason that you’re unable to explain it?
Already did: You’re focusing on a minor detail rather than the bigger picture, and I think that’s kind of silly given the stakes here.
“Americans are producing less e-waste and getting more value out of their purchases, and this is bad for rich people!”
Anyone who writes a headline like this should be chained to a bale of ewaste and thrown into the ocean.
Ship them in a container to Ghana to be “recycled” in a bonfire with the rest of the ewaste
Continuing to use something that still works is Hoarding? The shear fucking gall. They’re literally having to misuse the word “hoard” because they couldn’t think of a word for “sticking with something that works” with negative enough connotations.
I know, right? That ridiculous usage of the word hoarding stuck out to me as well. While I know words can have different meanings in different contexts, I find it confounding that anybody would think that word applies to a person who is perfectly happy with their fully functional 2+ year old device and therefore does not compelled to buy a new replacement.
Oh no not the economy 😭😔
It’s costing productivity…
Forget the damage to the planet that consumerism causes
Not constantly throwing away things that are still good is “device hoarding” now? Strong “quiet quitting” vibes there.
29 months
squeezing as much life out of your device as possible
Dude, my average phone age is 7 years. I’m now on my 3rd since smartphones exist.
What do US people do with their phones? Even my dad (a farmer) has them longer and he loses them sometimes in the field or drives them over.
Yank here. I dunno what these fucks are complaining about. All my phones have either been cheap, or refurbished secondhand. Hell, I even learned how to fix my own so I could make them last as long as possible. And when the OS gets too slow, I start throwing out old apps like I’m bailing a leaky ship. My average phone’s lifetime is nearly five years. My laptop? Nearly ten.
You know what this smells like? Smells like rich people complaining about poor people being pragmatic and sensible. “Decreasing productivity by 1/3 of a percentage point.” Spoiled little prince can eat my entire ass.
This. I’m just upgrading my galaxy s9 that was released in feb 2018. Although many parts of it are starting to die (e.g. screen burn in, a dew cracks), it’s only because my service provider is killing it off because it doesn’t support VOLTE (and I refuse to use the default Samsung OS).
Upgrading to a fairphone. You better believe that’s gonna last another 7 years.
I’d be using an S8 if I could
still fucking angry i can’t use a Sony xzc2 in the US since 3G shutdown (it HAS LTE capability and network operators refuse to support it)
Right? My current one is from 2019 and I don’t see a reason to buy a new one.
Mine’s lower, due to having one gotten stolen and another one crushed. My current one is five years old. According to the industry, we both are perverts or freaks that need to be eliminated.
I have no idea.
Technically I’m here because I replace phones every 2-3 years, but it’s so I can give my teens good phones. I can’t afford to replace four phones at once so this lets me replace two. We keep phones in the family, in use, for a much more reasonable 5-6 years
I’m only somewhat worse since early 2000s Windows phones were kinda trash and I broke my first iPhone. But after that, I run them until they start having trouble doing common things. I went from an iPhone 6 to a Pixel 6 which I still am using fine.
The economy can go fuck itself. I’d rather have a society and an ecology.
Oh no! Not the economy 😭
Someone please think of the shareholders!!!
Me, reading this on my 86 month old phone and feeling like the left’s greatest hero for dealing such a mighty blow to capitalism.
Thank you for your service, comrade.
29 months is “as much as possible”? My phone is from 2016 and it works fine!
That impressive really
And i boast about my 2019 phone that still works fine.
Fuck the economy.
