I think that receiving the latest technology is a want that feels like a need. Of course, cell phones have a huge impact on today's society. According to http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/ … ct-sheet/, 90% of Americans adults have cell phones for a number of reasons. They help us communicate (whether it's texting your mom to pick you up or just calling to say hi to an old friend), find our way around town (using the handy GPS) or just surfing the web. Cell phones are a need in today's world. But is getting the  latest one an actual necessity? Yes, a flip phone might not be the "coolest" thing to own, but keeping your iPhone for a few years before buying the latest one is okay. There are many people who buy the newest iPhone every single year! Use your phone for a few years to reduce production and help the environment!

I totally agree. Cellphones and laptops and other electronic devices are really helpful in our daily lives, and it might even be a sort of necessity, but getting the latest model of the iPhone or Samsung, Mac or PC, every year is not really necessary especially if your previous phone or laptop is working fine and completely intact. When you get a new phone, keep it for a couple years until the hardware is out of date and then change your phone. Doing this can help reduce electronic waste in landfills.

I agree that cell phones and laptops have multitudes of use and are essentially necessary in today's society. However, having the latest device, while exciting, is not necessarily worth the environmental risk it could cause. This article details the possible effects of e-waste. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2796756/. Although new devices are cool, they are not worth a high level of ewaste.

Protecting the phone you buy with a protective case or at the very least a screen protector will extend the life of your phone,  I have just removed the Otter Box that has been on my Samsung Galaxy 4 for 2 years and it is just like NEW!

I couldn't agree more, everybody feels as if they must have the newest and shiniest toys around, but what people aren't realizing is that the phone that they're holding in their hands, took a lot of valuable resources that could've been used for something more productive. I disagree with the comment about cell phones being a necessity in today's world, what ever happened to good, old-fashioned letters? We could ride our bikes (or, drive your car) over to somebody else's house to see if they're there. “Necessities” in our homes aren't necessities in the lives of LEDC's. Jamaican children aren't upset because their phone charger doesn't reach the other side of the bed. First world problems and necessities, aren't REAL problems and necessities.

I agree. I think having a cell phone is necessary, especially if you live in the city and you take the city bus a lot. We need cell phones to keep in contact with people and we have to be able to reach someone in case of an emergency.

True. People have really lost sight of what the true purpose of electronics and have started just buying them to have them.

I also agree with Molly. Most teenagers need cell phones to keep in contact with parents/guardians to make sure they are safe.

I agree. Having electronics can be very helpful on our world, but we need to be aware of how they affect the environment and in what ways we can improve it. I think not constantly buying the latest model is a really good idea. But what other ways can we reduce their affect?

I don't change my phone often at all, and I used a flip phone for 2 years up until 6th grade and since then I've been using my current iPhone 4 since it first came out and its still like new. I think that it would just be more useful to keep your current phone until it was unusable and needed to actually be replaced. Phones have to manufactured and sometimes need to be transported overseas which is a lot of CO2 emissions.

I agree.  I usually keep my phone until it stops functioning properly.

I agree. My family usually passes down their phones and this is quite an effective way of distributing technology.