Raise your hands if you own a smartphone? All 2.71 billion of you. Now raise your hands if you know a) how it was made, b) how it's discarded when you move on to the next one, and c) how it's affecting your health and freedom in the meantime.
The fact that probably only five people are still holding hands is by no means a coincidence; it's good for business. Because if you'd known, you probably wouldn't have gotten it in the first place. You certainly wouldn't want to give up the one you have, although for reasons we'll discuss, it might be too late for you now.
From the downright horrifying to the completely, utterly, disgustingly horrifying, here are 10 things Big Tech prefers to keep secret.
10. Smartphones are designed to fail.
Although smartphones can easily last more than three years, most people get rid of them sooner. Why? It's not as it should be, for all the reasons mentioned above, but rather because of planned obsolescence. It's a business strategy that involves various methods to ensure constant demand for new phones.
These methods include high repair costs (for example, for screens) compared to buying a new device, a shortage of original spare parts, short warranties, and clever marketing. All of these approaches are largely coercive. But planned obsolescence More specifically, it refers to glitches built into the software or hardware of your (their) device. Apple, for example, has been accused of intentionally slowing down iPhones with "updates." They deny it, of course, but nevertheless agreed to settle accounts with its customers (products) at $25 per device.
9. Your smartphone is reducing your quality of life.
There are two ways to use a smartphone: consciously (researchers call it "aware") and unconsciously (unconscious). Most of us can immediately see the difference between us using technology and technology using us. It's no surprise that smartphone use is so high. in "Unawareness" mode« was associated with reduced quality of life (measured by positive feelings, competence, and functioning).
What's troubling is that smartphones aren't a habit that affects just a few, like smoking. They're a total habit. Hence the generational fears that arose in a world where smartphones have always existed. "Generation Z," for example, or "iGen," is dramatically different from its predecessors, the "millennials"—more dramatically than millennials were from "Generation X," or than any other generation was from its predecessor.
One key difference is how they spend their time . Since the iPhone's release in 2007, teens have reportedly been spending less time with friends, dating, having sex, or even sleeping—and feeling lonely more often. Instead of dating, teens tend to inhabit virtual spaces online—apps and websites. And this isn't making them happy. According to a Monitoring the Future survey, those who spend more time on their smartphones and social media are significantly more likely to be dissatisfied with their lives.
8. Smartphone apps are intentionally addictive.
How many times a day do you check your smartphone? In typical addict fashion, even hardcore users probably underestimate it; the average American 262 times a day . What do we love so much about these little black mirrors?
Well, the truth is, it's not our fault, or even our choice. Smartphones are addictive by design. According to app developer Peter Mezick, "an app's success is often measured by the degree to which it instills a new habit." Why? Because attention pays. The more time we spend on social media and other apps, the more advertising revenue their creators receive. You're thinking about the product. , not about the buyer . Former employees of Apple, Google, Facebook and others have no doubt about this.
In fact, there's now an industry standard for reinforcing addiction. It's based on a model developed by Stanford psychology professor B.J. Fogg and works by creating incentives around negative emotions, such as boredom or loneliness.
7. "Your" smartphone is a surveillance device
Edward Snowden famously risked his life to expose how closely the US and other governments spy on their citizens. This is one reason why VPNs have become the new normal, at least for some of us. But we still carry spies in our pockets. virtually untraceable spyware All governments now have the ability to access our smartphones without our knowledge. And this is a capability they exploit.
It's not just America. The Polish government collected data from dissenting journalists' phones for use in smear campaigns against them; the Hungarian government deployed spyware to monitor NGOs; Greece used it to cover up corruption; the Spanish used it to monitor individuals involved in the Catalan independence movement… The list goes on. And it's hardly surprising.
What's surprising is the lack of awareness about smartphone surveillance capabilities, even among those most at risk. Protesters, for example, continue to carry their personal tracking devices, allowing police easy them identify and track .
6. Checking your smartphone damages your eyesight and skin.
Most smartphone users don't care about their vision; either that or they're unaware of the risks. According to the Vision Council, 80% Americans look at their devices more than two hours per day, and 59% experience digital eye strain. Unfortunately, this damage to retinal cells can lead to age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, eye cancer, and growths on the whites of the eyes. Worse still, people tend to blink less when looking at screens. You've probably experienced dry eyes, resulting in headaches.
If you think young people are on your side, beware: the opposite is also true. Children's eyes actually absorb more blue light, putting them at greater risk of disease.
But it's not just the eyes. High levels of artificial light also stress the skin—both indirectly, by disrupting sleep patterns, and directly, by causing oxidative stress. Research has shown that exposure to short-wavelength visible light (such as blue light), even for short periods, can generate cell-destabilizing molecules (reactive oxygen species) and, as a result, premature skin cell death. The result: accelerated aging and the appearance of wrinkles . But there's a silver lining: given the associated damage to your vision, it may be less noticeable in selfies.
5. Smartphones cause debilitating mental illnesses
The most obvious and widespread mental harm associated with smartphone use is the stress of being constantly connected. Users feel compelled to respond to every message they receive as soon as it arrives to maintain that connection. Research shows us what we already experience many times each day: notifications activate the sympathetic nervous system., releasing adrenaline , which, in turn, increases heart rate and muscle tension. The body stabilizes again after 30 minutes—and that's 30 minutes many of us never get.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Other chronic problems include sleep disturbance, cyberbullying , emotional dysregulation, depression, anxiety , cognitive impairment, low self-esteem and social avoidance .
We don't need research to tell us this, but surveys of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders between 1991 and 2016 Studies show that teenagers who spent less time communicating electronically were happier.
4. Smartphones cause you physical pain
We've already mentioned how blue light can damage your eyes and skin. It gets worse. By disrupting your circadian rhythm and worsening the quality of sleep , it can also contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Manual labor associated with smartphone use (unnatural repetitive movements of the arms and neck) can also lead to trapezius-metacarpal osteoarthritis и neck strain . In fact, the strain on your neck is 40 pounds at a 30-degree angle and 60 pounds at a 60-degree angle—the equivalent of having a baby sitting on the back of your neck every time you look at your phone.
But it's not just the blue light; it's also the impact electromagnetic fields with radio frequency modulation (RF-EMF). Just 50 minutes of talking on a cell phone has been found to increase brain glucose metabolism in the area closest to the antenna. While it's unclear what harm this might cause (including the developing brain of young people ), RF-EMF radiation has been linked to cancer, and phone use has been linked to an increased risk of brain tumors. Even in everyday life, since RF-EMF frequencies sometimes correspond to frequencies in neural tissue, there are concerns that they may interfere with knowledge . Even tiny disturbances can have a butterfly effect. It has also been shown that EMFs can penetrate cells and interact with mitochondrial DNA, ultimately damaging it through oxidative stress. At the very least, this could lead to hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields .
And while it's easy to forget when we're looking at our smartphones, we still share this world with other creatures, many of whom have been affected by the surge in electromagnetic radiation. a lot of evidence Harmful to ants, birds, frogs, bees, rodents, plants, and other animals. Bees, for example, do not return to their hives for ten days after exposure to cell phone EMF for just 10 minutes a day. This is because they rely on the Earth's magnetic field for navigation.
3. Smartphones are assembled in sweatshops
Worker (and human) rights abuses at FOXCONN in China, where Apple and Sony make their phones, are relatively well known — and remain completely unresolved. Workers continue to be paid less than they need to be, even for overtime (which is often unpaid as a punishment for failing to meet quotas). They are also exposed to toxins without protection, and they are lied to and their managers abuse them (Who, for example, promised double pay for increased production, but ended up paying only the standard amount.) If they want to resign, they have to ask permission, which is often denied. In other words, they're slaves. So it's no wonder suicide is common there.
But it's not just FOXCONN, Apple, or Sony. All smartphones rely on cheap labor. Another example is Samsung sweatshops in Vietnam , where miscarriages among the workforce, mostly women, are common and expected. They spend most of their time standing, even during pregnancy, causing dizziness and fainting. Neither toxic fumes nor the chaotic mix of day and night shifts help. Even "free time" is painful, as factory dormitories intentionally isolate mothers from their families.
2. Children die mining cobalt for batteries
More than half of the world's cobalt reserves, which smartphone manufacturers rely on for their batteries, come from hand-dug mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These places, euphemistically known as "artisanal mines" (AM), are a veritable hell on earth.
The true extent of the horror is unclear because much of it hidden . But what we do know paints a terrifying picture. Tens of thousands of children as young as seven, all for less than $2 a day, work up to 12 hours a day, carrying heavy loads, inhaling toxic dust, and contracting skin diseases underground. Accidents resulting in the loss of limbs and lives are common, and many bodies remain buried under the rubble.
And while major brands claim to be against child labor, the truth is that without it, they would be smaller. So it's no surprise that, according to Amnesty, they They don't even research the suppliers . Ultimately, since few smartphone users in the developed world actually care about this, there's very little pressure on them. The problem is now so entrenched that "ethical" smartphone alternatives like Fairphone , Not can separate Cobalt supplied by ASM from other sources.
1. Smartphones are ruining the planet.
While using your smartphone may seem relatively carbon neutral—at least between charges—the data centers needed to process all that information consume a ton of energy. So do phone towers. In the US alone, 4G consumes 31 million megawatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power 2.6 million households . 5G is expected to use three times more.
Furthermore, manufacturing, and especially mining, has an even greater impact. Mining (not just cobalt, but all associated materials, including gold and silver) accounts for up to 95% of your smartphone's total carbon footprint over its lifetime… which isn't very long.
Once you're done with it, it will continue to wreak havoc on the planet. The amount of discarded electronics (or "e-waste") in 2016 alone reached 43 million tons , equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel Towers. But it's out of sight, out of mind for most Americans. Hellish dumps electronic waste are located far away in developing countries, in China, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana and other countries where there are no rules.