The E-waste-Age

We are standing at the helm of a new age - the e-waste-'age’. While some would say that this period began a long time ago even before the invention of floppy disks and the microprocessor, but it is only now that the proportion of the dark side of moore's law can be widely seen, felt and for now only pondered upon.

For the uninitiated, Mr. Moore in the 1960's predicted the pace of innovation (in terms of processing speed, memory capacity etc.) in the computing industry to double every 2 years. No-no sir/ madame, he was not an astrologer but a co-founder at Intel. To his credit the law still holds steam and some still swear by it as the biggest driving force behind all technological changes.

Fifty years since and one can't help but notice the ensuing social changes due to Moore’s law/ accelerated technological innovations in the tech industry. There has been a sea of change in the social reliance tech firms (for their financial muscle), the social expectations from consumer electronics (for the convenience and comfort), the social addiction to online networking and the social intertwining through the flat world economics.

But, as is with any socio-economic overdependence, i.e. whether on subprime loans or technology or nicotine or weaponry etc., the counteracting factor loops back on the society in form of unperceived ill-effects. Hence, no different is the result of our over dependence on technology, or as I call it e-ddiction, that is adding 1000s of tonnes of electronic waste daily to the already existing heap on the face of the earth (and the orbit).

Well, yes there was a pun intended in my first statement.

Think about it.

Probably you don’t know the exact repercussions of e-waste but that’s what we are here for. Keep logging back but in the meantime bounce your thoughts of us on the ‘After-e-Life’ facebook page or just leave us a comment below.