By Liana In today’s age of technology and constant advertising on social media, consumerism is perhaps more rampant than ever. Social media influencers post hauls where they display the various new items they’ve acquired. Physical storefronts and online clothing stores boast the newest styles and trends. Phone carrier companies offer the newest phone model as an incentive for customers who switch to their plans. The messaging is everywhere: the latest product is the most desirable. From the unsustainability of fast fashion to the export of waste from richer countries to poorer countries, consumerism in recent decades has both created new issues and exacerbated existing ones to an unprecedented degree. In the case of the latter, production in the Global North has always relied on exploitation in the Global South to source labor, resources, and more. Increasing demand for new products in large quantities around the globe has reinforced preexisting systems of power imbalance and extraction. For a product like smartphones, the case study of Congo illuminates unethical labor practices as an issue that often goes unconsidered in the consumerist cycle of updating to the newest model.
Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, which is used to create lithium ion batteries. These batteries are used in almost every device that is rechargeable, such as phones, electric cars, and e-cigarettes. However, getting the cobalt to power them is extremely taxing. Locals, often including children, work long hours to harvest and load the minerals for transportation, earning meager wages amounting to less than a dollar every day (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). The mining environment itself is a treacherous one where the risk of a lethal cave-in runs high. While the government has outlawed child labor on paper, it is rarely enforced in actuality, with children as young as five years old tasked with bringing the empty cobalt bags back to the mines to be filled once again. Boys in their teenage years may avoid actively working in the mines, but are instead tasked with carrying the heavy filled bags uphill. Aside from the issue of child labor, no human being should be relegated to labor intensive and life threatening work with minimal pay. The production of these batteries at a low cost for consumers relies on human exploitation of those who feel as if they have no other choice if they want to provide for themselves and their families (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). The exploitation of Congo’s people and land is just one of many cases around the world in order to produce the goods to meet the demands of consumers in wealthier nations. An uptick of discussion of these issues on social media has led to more reflection on how consumers can mindfully manage their consumption with the awareness of its implications. For example, it may seem unimaginable that one could get by without using a smartphone in today’s modern society, but to what extent is it necessary to update phone models with each new release, or even every couple years? This question holds for products beyond smartphones and technology— the issue of overconsumption from every industry has lasting consequences that many do not take the time to consider. While a logical response to this knowledge may be to use the same phone forever, planned obsolescence has also been a continued issue for the past few decades, perhaps most brought to light in the case of the 2017 Apple lawsuit where consumers discovered that Apple was deliberately slowing older phones due to battery issues. Goods are produced with the intention that they will break and require the consumer to repurchase a new product, thus guaranteeing further profit. No matter how sustainably a person tries to maintain their technology, planned obsolescence will eventually render it unusable. This complicates the situation further because consumers are often given no choice but to get multiple replacements for their products. While goods created a few decades ago could have significant longevity, items ranging from household goods to phones are intentionally produced to no longer have the lasting power of their predecessors. The power that corporations hold over the market makes it difficult to find a large scale solution; customers finding a sustainable solution would mean an unacceptable loss in profit. However, social media users have presented solutions that one can practice in their personal lives, such as buying refurbished phones rather than purchasing new. Others have quit using electronic cigarettes, or vapes, which also use lithium ion batteries. Without a systemic overhaul, consumers can only raise awareness of the importance of mindful consumption and find workarounds to purchasing products that were made with a human cost. Being informed of the consequences of our consumption and intentional with the new products we do buy can shift how we approach the future. If you are a consumer with buying power, corporations are appealing to you with direct and indirect advertisement all the time, through public transportation advertisements, social media influencer sponsorships, and the general presence of today’s consumerist climate where everyone seems to have the latest products. By actively considering the necessity and implications of your purchases, you take personal responsibility over an ethical and environmental issue that corporations fail to take themselves. a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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