A lot of people would say that technology is a need in today’s world, but I would disagree. Technology is very important in communicating with people in the modern world, but many people abuse their phones and computers and use them for a lot more than the basic functions like texting or calling. I acknowledge that communicating with people is important, but many people get rid of their old phone when a new phone comes out, even when it still works fine. In fact, in 2015, the average phone in the US was replaced every 22 months, much shorter than the phone’s capacity to function. When buying a new phone, we should remember the carbon emitted by manufacturing, shipping, and charging the phone. Most importantly, we should check if our old phones work fine before buying a new one.

Source: http://www.theecologist.org/green_green … hones.html
Update: data is for the average phone replacement in 2010

On regard for you first part when you say that the technology is not a necessity, I would disagree because it allows us to make advancements in medicine and science that we would not have made without the required technological items. I do agree with what you said about how people abuse their phones but when humans have the power at their fingertips, why wouldn’t they want to use what they have for help in small things? The amount of carbon emitted for making one Iphone was 25 kg per phone in 2008, but it has risen to 80 kg when last recorded in 2014, so I do agree that people should just keep the phone that they have. One question that I have for you is, how long should we keep the same model phone for until it is okay to trade it up? To restate a bit, should we wait for our phones to break before getting a new one, or should we just trade up in a certain amount of years?