How many of you have heard of “planned obsolescence,” where something is created with limited useful timespan, so that you’ll have to replace it more frequently? How long do you usually keep your tech before you have to replace it? What’s the longest you’ve seen someone keep their tech?

Guilty as charged, but I’ve been on the “upgrade train” long before I bought my first iPhone (which I still have!). The company that made the first computer I bought went out of business shortly after I bought a second computer from that company. That forced me to become my own “tech support” and I learned how to do some hardware upgrades on a device that wasn’t really created with any upgrades in their design. When I moved to my next computer I sold the two first computers to another user who was better at repairing things like flaky CRTs. So I recycled that those computers (although the “collector” in me kind of wishes that I had kept one of my old Kaypro computers…). 

Then I discovered places like Fry’s Electronics or PC Club where I could buy computer parts and I’d get a new motherboard and then a new case and then add other components. Buy the 2007 I had abandoned cases lined up and some donated to the “please take me” table in the basement of my apartment building. Again, I should have kept the clear blue lucite PC case, it had potential but got “donated” when I move from California to Florida.

Right now I have four high tech items, the newest is my 2021 iPhone 13 Pro Max and the oldest is my 2019 MacBook Pro. Depending on where life leads next I’m thinking about updating the MacBook Pro  and seeing if I can trade-in my current MacBook Pro and my 2020 27” iMac. Previously whenever I bought new tech I sold my old tech (computers, tablets and smartphones) to a company called Gazelle. But they went out of business this last round of purchases so I recycled what I could directly with Apple. It’s important to try to remember that I started getting this stuff so that I could write and not so that I could be my own tech support/tech junk collector. Ack. 

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Source: PBS Above the Noise, What Really Happens to Our Old Electronics, https://youtu.be/j3Av1-nApuo