Part One
A community that I have slowly been learning to respect and value is the rural Maine community. Coming to college here has shown me that a lot of students don’t have the same survivability and resourcefulness that I learned through growing up in a less wealthy community. I definitely have learned the value of a dollar and do not find myself being as wasteful when it comes to making purchases. In the town I come from, nobody really makes that much money, so everyone finds ways to cut corners and save money. My family eventually pulled themselves out of most of our financial troubles, but I do remember growing up during the winter without heat, and that there were many nights where my parents chose not to eat so that my sister and I could. We may not have had the healthiest foods available to us, or the warmest house on the street, but honestly, not very many people did. Growing up how I did taught me to value working hard and overall just having some common sense when it comes to life.
Part Two
I think having access to the internet is vital to a community like the one I was raised in. In a town with so little money, the school districts often couldn’t meet the standards of traditional educations. A lot of our learning was supplemented through the use of the internet. Having access to the internet is also important to develop certain mindsets as well. As much as I appreciate the community I was raised in, a lot of the people living there do not have respect for people of other races, sexual orientations, or women. It is hard for children to learn to break these habits without the ability to submerge themselves in a diverse atmosphere. The Internet may be the only way some of these students can interact with people different from themselves.
Although the electricity used to support the internet is high, perhaps there are other solutions or ways that can solve this issue. My family gets its power from Madison electric, a company that is making the switch to using solar energy. “At peak production, the solar farm by itself covers Madison’s entire electricity draw,” according to nrcm.org. I’m very proud of what this company has done to bring the people in my community electricity in a positive way, and I hope more communities in Maine start making the switch to renewable energy.
Another digital technology that I think is beneficial to my community is video games and movie streaming. This sounds like an odd one to put out there since these things are typically for entertainment, but oftentimes these forms of media are all that people have during the wintertime. During the winter my family didn’t have enough money to go on vacations to Florida or go skiing. Ski rentals and lift tickets were frequently out of our budget. We would go sledding sometimes in the neighborhood but it really was too cold most days. However, we did have a lot of older video games and movies.
Used video games and movies can provide many hours of entertainment at a low cost. My family very much used everything until it couldn’t be used anymore, and we would try and self repair a lot of consoles that had damaged belts so we could use them as long as possible. Video game consoles may be an expensive initial purchase, but they have a lot of mileage and the games can be played repeatedly. I have all of my old consoles from childhood and often return to play those games.
The cases for the games and movies are my biggest concern when it comes to environmental impact. Switching to digital is a good step in the right direction because that way the cases can be by-passed. (I personally like having the cases and physical disks, but I don’t throw them away as many people do.)
Part Three
One technology I wouldn’t consider valuable to my community is smart home assistants like Alexa. As mentioned in one of the class articles from the Guardian, the process of “teaching” an Alexa commands “can emit as much as 626,155lb of carbon dioxide,” and in all honesty, my community has only been using these devices to play music. Nobody I know from my hometown has been using Alexa for all of the features it has been trained for, so a lot of that energy and time put into the device is being wasted in my community. The people who use Alexa in my community could just as easily substitute for a regular Bluetooth speaker.
Another technology that I don’t think is necessary for my community is the “smart” appliances, like refrigerators, microwaves and washing machines. Firstly, many people in my community can afford these types of devices anyway. Secondly, any smart device needs ample amounts of precious metals in order to make and use. Here is a shortlist of just a few of these necessary precious metals from princeizant.com :
- Gold
- Silver
- Palladium
- Platinum
The resources required to make smart devices are not infinite, yet tech companies keep releasing more and more smart-appliances every year, like tea kettles, clothing irons, and juicers. (makeusof.com) At some point, these precious metals will begin to dwindle, and the prices for all smart technologies will soar, making even cell phones and laptops unreachable for the middle class.
In a world where the middle class is required to have a cell phone/computer and for applying to jobs, staying employed, and furthering their education, we would be completely drowned out from having any sort of economic influence if we could not have access to these technologies.
Part Four
On a personal level, I won’t own smart appliances or an AI assistant at my house. I think it is fairly easy for me to be able to make that choice. I’m very comfortable living without those aids and I do not think I will need them either. If there is something I really want like the clap on/off lights, maybe I’ll just build it with Arduino.
On the town level, I very much value a democratic process. I know that there are already very many green cities that have ordinances in place to protect them from certain technologies. For example, Denver Colorado is planning on becoming 100% run on renewable energy by 2020. (re-volve.org) There are many other cities as well. However, this should always be voted on democratically. You never know who may not be ready to make the switch yet, maybe for medical reasons or others, so forcing everyone to convert to a new system quickly can be difficult.
One thing I would not be able to figure out on my own is how to ban these sorts of technologies from being produced outright. I mean, silicon valley has a lot more money and power over our legislature than I do. There aren’t many things that will turn certain political minds into environmentalists. There are many things that people on our planet are still struggling with that our government won’t turn to aid them with. I would like to think to have humanity for others rose above politics, and yet… I’ll leave that point at that.
Sources
https://www.nrcm.org/blog/solar-energy-looking-madison-maine/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/17/tech-climate-change-luddites-data
https://princeizant.com/news/precious-metals-in-electronic-devices
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smart-home-products-dont-need/
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