Back when I was 13, my brother broke the display on his relatively new Galaxy Tab Nook. It was a total accident, so my parents weren’t mad, but buying a new one wasn’t entirely in the cards. But that was also around the same time I was learning more about tech, and at that point I felt comfortable enough to bring up the idea of figuring out how to repair it. My parents decided to let me have a shot at it. They figured it was worth it to potentially fix it, and no matter what happened help me learn more about tech, since they knew I was getting more into that. A couple of weeks and a broken digitizer later, I had fixed it. And I was ecstatic! The idea that I took something that didn’t work, and fixed it for less than what the cost of a new one would have been was exciting to me! After that I was hooked on the idea of repairing stuff.

I also realized years later just how useful old tech could still be. My laptop throughout my last two years of high school was an old Acer laptop that my mom didn’t use anymore. I was able to replace its broken wireless card with a USB dongle and get it working again, and even today I still use its motherboard in a server. Throughout my college career, I’ve also had the chance to fix up a few old computers that were tossed out, like my brother’s former-roomate’s old iMac. All it needed was some more RAM, and a Linux install and it ran perfectly!

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I’ve been re purposing some old tech of mine and learning more about solar punk (might write more about that later) and how it relates to all of this. So I decided it would be fun to write a blog post about it!

Reusing & continuing to use old tech

Probably one of the simplest things people can do to help is to simply use your tech as long as you can! You’d be surprised how well a computer that is 10 or more years older can run with the right software and repairs. If something stops working, like a battery or other component, even just taking it to a local repair shop can help a lot! Another thing you can do is repurpose any old tech you might have lying around for something different. For example, you can turn an old phone into a security system, or an old computer into a media center PC. The possibilities are endless!

Of course, there are some things that can make this a bit hard. For example, repairability of a device can make or break things. Software support can also drastically affect things. For example, once Windows 10 loses support, your options if you aren’t willing or able to install a different OS or hack Windows 11 onto your PC are pretty much upgrade your PC or use an insecure version of Windows. Which also leads to problems with reusing old tech. Sometimes re purposing old tech can take a bit more technical know-how to figure out depending on what you want to do. Of course these all can be alleviated with a little help, though I will go over that in the next couple of sections.

Repairable tech

A huge thing that can help with the sustainability of our tech is repairability. This is simply because replacing a broken part is much better than replacing an entire device with one broken part. It keeps usable hardware in use instead of in the landfill. The idea of repairable tech is most prominent from smaller companies, like Framework with the Framework Laptop, or Fairphone with their catalog of repairable tech, but even some bigger companies are starting to get behind this. Acer released a laptop that is easier to repair, and companies like Samsung, Google and even Apple have been doing a bit more to help make repair a bit more accessable. They still aren’t perfect, but it’s better than nothing.

Advocacy

Another big thing you can do to help is advocate for repairability and longevity of tech. This shows companies, and more importantly governmental bodies that people want more sustainable technology, better repair options, and the ability to use their tech longer without it becoming “obsolete.” As mentioned before, if you are more technically inclined, you can also help those who aren’t to use their tech longer by showing them how they can repurpose old tech, and helping them explore alternative OS options if possible.

Suggestions

I would also like this to be a bit of a living article, so if anyone reading this has any other suggestions on this front, feel free to email me let me know, so I can add it in here! I will also credit you when I add things in here!

This is post number 2 of (hopefully) 30 for WeblogPoMo 2024!