According to Nathaniel Bullard and Adam Minter, writing in the CT Post, we are using fewer, lighter, more energy efficient, and easier to recycle gadgets. This trend has been going on all century but with all the fear-mongering and hand-wringing and news photos of boatloads of e-waste going to developing nations, the truth is much less dystopian. Turns out, we use fewer gadgets because our smartphones are taking over more and more of those functions.
If only there was a news source that would alert us to this and help us make sense of this. Like this article which I wrote three years ago. We used to walk around everywhere with bags loaded like this:
Now, we’re more likely to walk around with this:
Americans’ 284 million TVs use 35 times more electricity than their 238 million smartphones. For that matter, the remaining 104 million cordless phones in the U.S. use more electricity than U.S. smartphones — and the remaining 113 million clock radios use more electricity than 140 million tablets… Finally, the 284 million TVs in use in American households is down from 353 million in 2010. Smartphones and tablets really are eating everything – and replacing them with something many times more energy-efficient.
The solution? Get rid of (and by that, I mean responsibly recycle!) everything that wasn’t made this century! Here at the Gadgeteer, we’ve been leading this charge since the ’90’s, and we’ll continue past the time those gadgets are surgically installed in utero. So keep on coming here to find what new, green, light, healthy upgrade is available for your old, heavy, inefficient energy hog of a gadget from yesteryear!