Why Repairing Technology Matters to Me
Let me take things apart and put them back together, dang it
In December 2023, my laptop’s keyboard started to malfunction, and I didn’t want to risk breaking it by attempting to fix it myself. So, I brought it to a local computer repair store to get it fixed. While the whole process was costly, I’m glad that fixing it wasn’t nearly as expensive as buying a new one. I saved money by extending my laptop’s life by a few more years by exercising my right to repair.
Usually, I’m the one who fixes things for others. Last year, my friends and I volunteered twice at a local repair café to help people fix things for free. I worked in the electronics section, while my friends sharpened knives and mended clothing. As the day went on, I slowly became discouraged because I wasn’t successfully fixing as many things as my friends were. For example, one of my friends performed “surgery” for a kid’s stuffed fox; when another kid brought me her broken Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, all I could do was show her the snapped internal printed circuit board and tell her I didn’t have the right tools to fix it.
It frustrates me that the electronic devices that we use are becoming increasingly difficult to fix. Not enough devices are designed such that their parts are replaceable; in some cases, intentional design choices are deliberately put in place to prevent people from fixing their own technology. Considering how expensive computers are to produce and recycle, the fact that we expect to burn through them every three to five years feels wrong from both an environmental and ethical standpoint. I hope that with the right actions, legislation, and innovation, the technology that we use will be easy to modify to whatever needs that we see fit.
Walled Garden Hardware Ecosystems are Hurtful
In computer software, a walled garden ecosystem (a.k.a. closed-platform ecosystem) is one where the system’s provider controls or restricts what actions a user can do.1 For instance, restricting a child’s computer account with parental controls prevents them from having too much screen time, downloading and running dangerous programs, or getting lost in dangerous parts of the internet. I don’t think walled garden ecosystems are bad in general; they can be useful in some situations like virtual machines, containerization, and application sandboxing.
Apple products like iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are the best example I can think of for a walled garden hardware ecosystem. Apple products are notoriously difficult to fix by third-party repair centers like the one I visited. Newer iPhones like the iPhone 14 are designed to reject replacement components not installed by authorized repair centers2 thanks to anti-repair tactics like parts pairing.3
When an original manufacturer prevents third-party product repairs through walled-garden hardware ecosystems, it eliminates any possible competition and gives itself a monopoly over who can repair its products. Without competition, the original manufacturer can arbitrarily set repair prices and allow for lower quality control; after all, consumers would have no other option.4 Encouraging third-party hardware repair (or, better yet, self-service repair) could have the opposite effect, keeping prices low and quality control high by encouraging healthy competition between repair centers and the original manufacturer’s official services.
Computer Materials Aren’t Ethically Sourced
Tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold, and cobalt are essential materials for making consumer electronics components. Most of these metals are sourced from artisanal mines located in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sixty-seven percent of the world’s tantalum, used in capacitors, originates from Rwanda and the eastern DRC. In these areas, armed groups perpetuate violence by demanding taxes from the miners. In some cases, the armed groups will take over the mines and extract the tantalum themselves with forced labor to buy more arms with the profits. Seventy percent of the world’s cobalt, used in lithium-ion batteries, originates from the southern DRC.5 Previous investigations of the cobalt mines in these areas revealed that they used child labor and put employees through dangerous conditions with little oversight. The mining activities in these areas are detrimental to local communities as well, causing breathing problems and birth defects related to toxic metal exposure levels.6
Trashing Computers Leads to E-Waste
Electronic devices can be subject to planned obsolescence, the act of deliberately shortening a product’s lifespan to force a consumer to buy newer products. This business strategy forces consumers to throw away what would otherwise be perfectly usable technology to keep up-to-date with the latest software or hardware requirements.7 Case in point, Microsoft Windows 10 will reach end-of-life in October next year, and many computers that met the requirements for Windows 10 won’t meet the requirements for Windows 11.8
Planned obsolescence was a major factor in the 59 million tons of e-waste produced in 2019. E-waste contains highly toxic chemicals and metals like mercury, cadmium, and lead; if not processed and disposed of properly, it can harm both wildlife and people. That’s what happens in India, Indonesia and Thailand: “backyard recycling” is often performed with child labor and dangerous conditions without proper pay or safety equipment to protect workers from hazardous fumes.9
Conclusion
So, what can we do as people to fight for the right to repair and lower e-waste?
- Get active! Contact your local government representative(s) and put pressure on them to support legislation that supports the right to repair and reduces e-waste.
- If you have the skills, fix your own stuff if you can. Better yet, volunteer at a repair café like I do to help other people fix their things.
- If you don’t have the skills to fix things, that’s okay too. You can support your local repair cafés or repair shops to get your stuff fixed by others.
- Extend the life cycle of old tech by learning and using free & open-source software. There are lots of Linux distributions dedicated to running on older computer hardware like Lubuntu and PeppermintOS. Some older Android phones and other devices can run postmarketOS.
- Avoid the temptations of buying new tech. When you do need to buy new tech, try to support companies that make repairable hardware.
This may sound like me succumbing to the IKEA effect, but I find few things more satisfying than holding something that I made myself, including things that I fixed. It’s one of the reasons why I liked working at the repair café: it’s fun taking apart the devices that people gave me and figuring out what was wrong with them. With the right tools and expertise, repairing something is just as rewarding as making something yourself. It would be wrong to deny that sense of enjoyment from others.
References
Footnotes
Currie, “Apple Pairs Well with Profits, Not Repair Shops”.↩︎
Mickle, Koeze, and Chen, “You Paid $1,000 for an iPhone, but Apple Still Controls It”.↩︎
Turrentine, “At 59 Million Tons, Our E-Waste Problem Is Getting Out of Control”.↩︎
Warren, “Windows 11 Will Leave Millions of PCs Behind, and Microsoft Is Struggling to Explain Why”.↩︎
Turrentine, “At 59 Million Tons, Our E-Waste Problem Is Getting Out of Control”.↩︎