Tag: conspicuous consumption

40% of Millennials Replace Wearable Devices Every 6-12 Months — U.N. Continues Warning about Toxic E-Waste

Environmentalists continue to warn that Apple AirPods (which also catch fire) are adding to already dangerously high levels of unrecyclable toxic E-Waste. Of course, AirPods aren’t the only popular wearables being manufactured, purchased, and fated to become E-Waste (see 1, 2, 3).

So those who buy wearables are being increasingly chastised even though tech proponents continue to promote Internet of Things (IoT) technology as being essential to a healthier environment. This doesn’t make sense.  IoT has a high failure rate as well as enormous cybersecurity and privacy risks (see 1, 2, 3, 4).  Therefore, frequent replacement of IoT technology will also create more E-Waste.  So it’s not unreasonable to suspect those who promote IoT for sustainability as being completely misguided.

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