By Jenna Sands Forum editor
Technology is advancing, whether we like it or not, but there are as many problems with it as ever.
We have created touchscreen smart phones, convertible laptop computers, wearable technology such as watches and even virtual reality headsets. Despite these advances, there are still problems with certain technologies that irritate me.
It bothers me that iPhones are built to only last for two years. Maybe I don’t want to buy a new phone that’s slightly larger and pretty much exactly the same every two years, but I have to because I can’t make my phone last much longer than three years at the longest.
It’s also annoying that iPhone users have to constantly update their phones. The changes in the updates are usually things I would not have made on my phone if given the choice. I used to try to wait as long as I could to update my phone.
Last summer, the headphone jack in my iPhone stopped working. It made a buzzing sound, and I tried several different pairs of headphones to make sure the buzzing was actually coming from my phone. I took my phone to the Apple store, hoping someone they could replace the headphone jack.
The person who helped me said it was not possible to replace the headphone jack and that I could either just live with it until I got a new phone with my upgrade or I could buy a new one now. He didn’t mention the notification to update my phone, which had been there for probably over a month.
I took my phone home to think about it, because I really did not want to buy a whole new phone just because the headphone jack wasn’t working. My mom told me to update it and see what happens. I didn’t think much of it, but I updated it anyway.
After the update was complete, I plugged my headphones into my phone to try one more time before giving up and looking for wireless headphones. To my surprise, it worked. I was shocked that not updating my phone for so long prevented the headphone jack from working.
This bothered me because I almost bought a new phone while all I had to do was update it. This made me think about all the times my phone gets slow and unresponsive, which I know is because of waiting to do an update. It’s Apple’s way of forcing people to update their phones within a certain amount of time.
I now know that I have to make sure I don’t wait too long to update my phone or it will get slow or maybe my headphone jack will temporarily stop working. But I know I’ll just have to buy a new phone after two years anyway.
In this day and age, you would think technology would be able to last much longer than just two years. People used to have flip-phones that lasted much longer. Now, they make phones to break so people have to spend more money to buy a new one and so they can come out with a new version of the phone so people will be persuaded to buy it.
While iPhones are very technologically advanced, it doesn’t seem very advanced that they can’t even last for more than two years.
The editorials of The Quill reflect the views of individual members of the editorial board. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire editorial board or of the university. The content of the Forum page is the responsibility of the editor in chief and the Forum editor.
