The Real Value of Technology
In today’s society, the evolution of technology has exponentially grown. It seems like just a few years ago the telephone was invented and now cellphones, laptops, tablets, any type of portable technology is in the hand of each person. But it isn’t limited to just handheld devices. The expansion of the digital world goes as far as the applications within these devices such as social media, camera capabilities, and other company owned sites. But do users really understand where their everyday devices come from and how it’s made? Most people know there devices are made in factories but they do not know every single device is hand made by individuals in unethical working conditions and that the materials used for these items are extracted from countries who allow children as young as 12 years old to mine for the resources.
I was shocked when I realized that each technological device we use is actually hand made in factories not just by machines. Most of these factories are seen in Asian countries where mass producing factories are extremely common. Workers spend their days assembling tiny parts into devices with their own hands. But what makes it worse is the conditions they work in. In the U.S. the average work day is 8 hours but in countries that have these factories, their work days consist of working for 12+ hours a day with little to no breaks and these workers can be as young as teenagers. They are required to stay seated and continue working in order to increase efficiency and production and it is heard that there are harsh, physical consequences if workers make mistakes and receive a low wage on top of that. CBS produced a documentary on a well known company known as, FOXCONN, which produces technological devices (including Apple products). This documentary displayed the realities of what working in these factories are like. They even acknowledge attempted suicides from workers due to the overwhelming working conditions. It has gotten so severe that they place nets at the bottom of their buildings to prevent more workers from jumping off the factory buildings in an attempt to end their lives.
The exploitation of workers does not stop at the assembly of technology; it continues with the extraction of the resources needed to create such parts of a device. Minerals like gold, iron, wolframite, coltan, and much more are mined from regions in smaller, suffering countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo. These countries recruit all types of citizens in order to extract these materials to be shipped off for production. The youngest workers are known to be as young as 12 years old. These workers are also pay little to nothing but continue to work in order to provide for their families. In these countries many families are separated because they ship workers in different regions where minerals are plentiful. In addition, these countries are rich in minerals that are needed by many other countries and this can cause tension. Many countries smuggle resources out of the country which creates a multitude of problems between the countries and within the country itself.
After discovering what actually goes into the production of these technological devices, I now wonder if they are really worth the few hundred dollars. What is the true value of these items?
The following is a link to a documentary about conflict minerals and the exploitation of workers and children in the Congo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYqrflGpTRE
