Why do we make fixing things so difficult?
If we want to reduce (e)waste, surely, it's easier to create fixable products rather than those expensive single-use ones?
In India, it’s ubiquitous to repair things. As a teenager, I broke down my PC simply to figure out which part wasn’t working, isolated that, and got my dad to bring a replacement. We didn’t throw the entire CPU out and replace it with a cheaper or better model. In fact, it’s an actual right in India to be able to optimally repair your tech, farming, consumer appliances, and automobiles.
When my phone screen shattered in the UK, I tried getting it fixed, but when they quoted £70 to fix a £100 phone, I decided to continue with a smashed screen until I could fix it back home. Repairing things is nearly an unheard-of concept in ‘developed’ countries1. There’s either too much money or too little care involved, and buying a new product seems easier. The ease of finding parts to repair your product and knowing how to all boils down to the right to repair.
Cool designs vs. sustainability
Think about it - earlier, laptops and phones used to have removable batteries. In fact, my laptop from 2017 is still one of those old-school models, and I’ve been able to replace a dying battery and continue using it for seven years. One of the biggest reasons for the switch was to offer us thinner, sleeker phones, so the manufacturers had to glue down the battery.
But being unable to remove, repair, or change the battery when it inevitably dies means we must chuck the whole phone away. Small design changes like these have led to us only being able to seek ‘service’ from the original company instead of repair folks unless, of course, we’re okay with voiding the warranty.
It’s unlikely that big tech will knock down your door if you open your phone or laptop to try to fix it. In fact, they mostly won’t because it’s so inaccessible to fix your own devices now. If you have the technical know-how, the product parts are proprietary, so you can’t really fix whatever’s broken (or vice-versa).
The Right to Repair explores different options for sustainable consumption and fixing devices and products, so we’re not creating single-use products. From my rudimentary understanding, this right to repair was adopted this year in the EU and now makes it easier for consumers to fix the things they own. Ditto for some states in the US2, like New York and Colorado. This is great news for the 77% of EU citizens who’d much rather repair than replace their devices.
How can we repair more things?
One of the key aspects of the right to repair is information on how to fix something that’s broken. There are two aspects: specific technical knowledge and a general understanding of repair work. 79% of EU citizens think that manufacturers must be legally obligated to facilitate the repair of their products or the replacement of individual parts.
Once upon a time, we used to have home-ec classes where students would like practical life skills like sewing, woodworking, cooking, repairing tech, etc. It’s been a while since these practical life skills have been a part of a kid’s curriculum - is it any wonder that we need to look up YouTube videos about everything from fixing a leaking tap to repairing a broken phone screen?
Repairing bigger devices like your washing machine or figuring out what’s wrong with your heater can only happen when you know basic information about these devices. When we equip people with basic home skills, they can extrapolate how to fix specific devices with the right resources. For everything else, there can be options to repair the products through whom we want, not just the original manufacturers. Because if only original sellers/manufacturers can repair broken products, they have a vested interest in selling us things that will break soon enough3.
This goes beyond smartphones and laptops; the biggest campaign for the right to repair to be adopted is by the agricultural community. It’s one thing for you to hand in your phone and wait for it to be fixed for a few days, quite another for a farmer to wait weeks during sowing/harvest season to have his equipment fixed by one specific company due to proprietary tech.
Right to repair & fully own (what you buy)
When you buy something, ideally, it should be yours without any random conditions. But that’s very rarely the case right now. Whether it’s your smartphone that can only be repaired by its manufacturer or the books on your e-reader that can only be read on that particular e-reader/software, we’re losing sight of what ownership means.
When you buy an e-book, unless you’re somehow buying directly from the publisher, it’s most likely registered to a specific e-reader company email address. Lose that email address or want to change from one e-reader to another? Say goodbye to all the e-books you’ve bought so far.
Ditto for games on digital platforms, the songs or content you “pay to stream, never to buy.”
There’s a difference between streaming & borrowing and outright buying something, and the lines for the latter are blurred. This is because of DRM (Digital Rights Management), which locks you into one platform, software, and tech company. Your first choice soon becomes your only choice unless you’re able to painfully migrate everything (very unlikely).
When you buy a physical book or a CD or when you used to buy vinyl or VCRs, you own that copy and could play it in any CD player or read it anywhere you wanted. Today, tech and media companies retail complete and total ownership. Even if you joined the streaming platform ABC to watch the movie XYZ, it could “leave” the platform the very minute you join. There’s no guarantee for streaming at all, and the guarantees around ‘owning’ your copy of a media are getting lower.
This isn’t an issue for consumption alone. When digital media companies decide to ‘purge’ content from all streaming platforms worldwide and even their actual databases to get tax benefits, creators lose complete access to their work. This is so that there are fewer royalties to pay out, but at the end of the day, we’re recreating the lost Library of Alexandria before our very eyes in slow motion.
Between the loss of our right to own (what we buy) and the lack of an enforced right to repair (yet), we’re creating a world that consumes more and more without the ability to offer sustainability on a very basic, achievable level.
I guess we’ve gotta fight for our right to repair/own/party all at once.
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Nia's Rec 💡
Way back, in ye olden days of November 2022, I had shared a pretty cool tip for my fellow LinkedIn users: Turn off “People Also Viewed” so you're not sending potential recruiters/clients to other folks' profiles.
That tip came from LinkedIn from Humans, which I linked to without sponsoring because I believed in the content and value so much. Now, LIFH is open again for enrollment till the end of this week (October 13, 6 PM BST), and I've luckily got an affiliate link to share with you. If you use this link, I get a little bit of spare cash to buy another book — so, not enough to recommend something I don't fully believe in.
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Wrist & life update: Wrist continues to recover, and I'm almost fully healed. Life-wise, remember when I said to keep track of your work achievements in the last issue? Well, that came in handy cause I've been laid off (with 10% of my company) and am now looking for roles in content & marketing in the Netherlands or Germany. Lmk if you have any leads!
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Cool things to check out this week 🚀
Sometimes it's good to prove to yourself that you can do hard things.
A 2-minute burnout checkup to do this mental health day/week.
If you haven't already tried it out, emoji kitchen lets you make new emojis by fusing two existing one. Just search emoji kitchen or cook here.
How to stop thinking about work all the fucking time (@ me but also @ you if you're anything like me).
Just relax, my friends...
🎁 Pretty skies to keep you going.
Thanks for reading! Please tap the heart if you liked this issue (or like the newsletter in general) so the algorithm overlords take pity on me lol.
Repair cafes are an increasing trend I’ve noticed here in the Netherlands, and I’m here for it! It’s a mix of repairing things + sharing info with the community!
For my American friends: legally, American shoppers are mostly already allowed to repair whatever they buy (those warranty-voiding stickers you’ve probably seen on gadgets are usually bogus under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act).
So the answer to the question in my headline is capitalism: The less we fix, the more we buy, and the more we spend, and the richer big tech gets.
hey Nia. good to see a new edition from you. Repair over everything! But sadly this is on the decline (including for me). As you mentioned repairing is sometimes really expensive. And I think we need alot of devices these days without which we cant function. Like i am always stressed if something happens to my laptop or phone. I know i cant buy a new one or get it repaired. it is like living on the edge. I do try to reuse and be more sustainable in non-electronic items
Loved this, Nia! So great to have you back in my inbox