Finding Balance in Technology
Everything changes, time moves forward, night turns to day. History changes the future. People change. Thoughts change. Change brings change. This has been shown repeatedly throughout life. Technology changes with the times. Technology is something that is never stagnate and constantly moving forward with the times. Technology is also something that many of us have become very depend on. I spend hours a day on my computer and cell phone for basic necessities of running a business, connecting with family, friends, and colleagues, doing research, and personal enjoyment. I would say that technology is positively assisting me in many areas of my life. But is it all positive? What are the negative impacts of this ever changing industry? Most of the time change can be great, but it is important to be conscious of the negative repercussions.
Being informed is the biggest step in living an eco-conscious life with all the advances of modern day. To break it down in a simplistic way, think about how fast the turnover is on computers. Every year there are advances made in the filed, therefore, many consumers and businesses choose to upgrade there equipment frequently. When all those later edition computers and phones are tossed, they wind up in over-saturated landfills or sometimes in Third World countries where they are deconstructed by hand for valuable, yet toxic heavy metals by people that aren’t protected from these toxins. Not good in either situation.
If this motivates you to change this pattern, here are some tips to become a more aware disposer of electronics. Recycle you old electronics. The parts inside your “a day old” electronic can be reused for a newer, faster, smaller model. Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been receptive to the concern for our environment and in response has started collecting older machines (even coming to your house to pick up) to collect heavy metals and recycle parts. There are other companies like Electronics Recyclers (www.electronicrecyclers.com) that keep you informed with this major issue as well as help you in recycling items such as computer monitors, plasma screens, TV’s, printers, faxes, calculators, keyboards, cell phones, speakers and much more. Another important action to take is encouraging technological companies to advance and change the manufacturing of there electronics making them more recyclable, contain less hazardous waste and more energy efficient.
There is a large amount of money and energy spent in the technology industry, so there needs to be changes and advances in this field for it to stay with the times. For many years people neglected to see the negative impact on the environment that spawned from the industrial revolution. But now that we are more informed of the consequences, we can change that to create more benefits. The environment is something that unites everyone, in every country. It is good to know that we can agree on one thing, we need a healthy functioning environment to have healthy happy people. Can we agree that we need change in order to keep that in balance?
Lots of Love,
Collette and Natalie McGuire
Small Axe Clothing
