New Media Literacy

Technology as Political Objects Question:

How are our technologies and devices political objects? What does it mean to think of our technologies and devices as political?

Personal Opinion:

When newer generation devices release in North America, older devices of that brand tend to be in use for many years. This is how our devices become political objects. Even though they become obsolete they aren't thrown away. While it's true they're dumped into other countries in the form of slow violence, most are recycled into techno trash that are later re-used for assembling and manufacturing parts. Printers for example have newer models every year. But old or newer models doesn't really matter. Why? The cartridges that all printers rely on have remained the same to support all their models. However there has been an increase in its price because of high demand. Despite old or new modelled devices, they're politically in use because of profit. Many third world countries aren't as highly developed as Canada or United States and so it takes time and money for them to adapt to the technology and devices we're accustomed to. But by the time they're accustomed to this new technology we're already into the future. Electronic companies keep themselves profitable through sustainable development, economic market, techno trash, and labor forces that's responsible for assembling, disassembling and manufacturing devices from around the world.

When we think our technologies and devices to be political, we look at how much of that device we're supporting. As mentioned in the lecture and article about Apple iPhones, it's obvious that loyal customers have been upgrading yearly to the most up-to-date iPhone. This can be said about any device loyal customers look forward to in buying. For example, I'm a gamer and I've bought all the Sony game consoles. But