New phone, who dis

I recently bought a new phone. Generally, my approach to consumerism is a minimalistic one; I prefer to cherish and hold on to the items I already own. I would rather fix a broken item than throw it out and buy a new one. The ironic thing is, my old phone worked just fine; it was just old. It hadn't received a security update in over 3 years. Getting more security-conscious, I figured that, even though the phone was functional, it was unsafe to keep using it. It's like wearing safety goggles; generally, nothing really happens, and you'd have been just fine without them, but the one time your band saw explodes you better be glad you're wearing them. In other words, I'd been going goggle-free for the past 3 years and figured it's time to fix that.

So, here's how I picked, and what I ended up picking.

Maybe just… no phone?

Over time, I've been using my phone less and less. In school, I used it quite a bit for a wide variety of things; from checking schedules, to playing games, to chatting with friends, to watching movies. Nowadays, my phone is a glorified alarm clock. I use my laptop for communication, and, well, everything else. I am intent on avoiding doomscrolling, and dropped the last form of social media over a year ago.

So, do I really need a phone? Can I just… not buy a new one? Well, hypothetically, yes, I could do without one. I could buy an alarm clock, and that's the use-cases covered. I don't even really ever pick up the phone (I get more calls from spammers than from people I know) unless I both notice it's ringing (which it doesn't, it's always on silent) and I know the person or expected the call. The reasons I still decided to buy one:

• Many services (including those I am essentially peer pressured into, like certain messenger apps) require a phone number. This is a theoretically fixable problem, but is more of a hassle than just having a phone number.
• It is extremely useful in case of emergency. If someone collapses on the street, with nobody around, and I don't have a phone, what am I to do? Ring doorbells? Steal the phone off the person that collapsed?
• I'm already very anti-social, and removing yet another style of communication doesn't seem like the best move. Not that it's a form of communication that is often used, but I'm not ready to close it off completely.

I did also consider the thought of somehow linking a SIM card to a laptop (either a new one or an adapter to use with my current laptop) but this still suffers from two of the three issues mentioned.

Okay, so, I needed the phone.

How did I pick one?

My old phone, even though I used my phone more at the time I bought it than I do now, was chosen primarly for its price. It was under $ 200 (converted, anyway; I didn't pay for it in USD). It didn't have NFC, or a headphone jack. I didn't care. I could take this even further this time, and get an even cheaper one; however, I did not. In fact, the phone I ended up buying was nearly 4 times the price of my old phone. Why?

Over the years, and especially in the past year, I've become much more conscious of my purchasing decisions, and more specifically, who I give my money to. I've grown hesitant to choose a large, well-known company because I stopped believing that the size of a company in any way means that that company's values have an overlap with mine.

Why values matter

You might think; this guy is nuts. Why does he care that his values align with a company's? Does it even make sense to compare an individual with a corporate entity like that? And, clearly, I think so. We vote with what we buy. If a company creates cheap products by exploiting workers in third-world countries, the way to stop them is to collectively avoid buying the products. A company needs money to survive; cut off the supply, and they bleed out. Who you choose to give your money to matters.

And yeah, I know. I don't make a difference. Not by myself. But that attitude hinders change. If not me, then who?

So yes, I think values matter. I want to support companies that I think are trying to do something good. And actually, the vast majority of companies don't really want to do something good. They just want to make money. In fact, a lot of them are forced to by virtue of legally having to make choices in favor of financial gains, for investors. So the sad reality is, finding a company that aligns with my values is so severely narrowing down my choices that generally there is one or zero brands I can choose from for a given type of product.

So which one did I buy?

I got a Fairphone. A Fairphone 5, to be specific. This phone is repairable and made with sustainable materials. Their workers (including those in China) get paid properly. To me, it's stupid that this is something I need to praise. Depressingly, it is not the norm. And, as a result of Fairphone caring about sustainability and longevity, the phone comes with software and security updates until 2031 (a whopping 8 years after release). This all comes at a higher price tag, and a phone that is somewhat on the bulkier side, but I also acknowledge that there are a multitude of problems that come with manufacturing a phone the way Fairphone does, and that that comes at a price. I'm happy to pay the extra for it if it means Fairphone stays in business just a tiny bit longer. They are setting an example I desperately want other companies to follow.

To be clear, I do not agree with everything this company does. For one, their marketing practices are as obnoxious as any other. Still, I'm extremely appreciative and happy that there is at least one manufacterer who's doing things the way I believe are ethical.

Thanks, Fairphone!