Easily said.
Two old film camara bodies, with lenses. Expensive years ago when they were new. Now they look tattered – like two old homeless men. They have been kicked out of the camara bag.
This is the dilemma of someone like me, born in the late fifties : we were taught that things were paid for by hard earned cash – you do not just throw it away when you are done with it. Expensive things were useful for many years.
Then the cheap technology explosion hit us, hand in hand with consumerism. It amazed me the first time I read that in China they had umbrellas that were designed for only one day of use – than you throw it away…. Still you had a choice of an expensive permanent umbrella or a cheap throw away model.
When it comes to camaras, computers and phones, you have far less choice. The infrastructure of these devices, and the services delivered to them, forces you to upgrade every few years. And when you do, the old instrument is obsolete and in most cases, useless.
I enjoy new technology, new phones with the new software and new computers with new capabilities.
But how do you get rid of that technology like a tablet, that cannot even update any more? What can help us to make that mind shift?
Old computer disk drives yield nice and strong magnets when you open them up (demolish them) – so that “gain” offsets the “guilt” of throwing the leftovers away. Old camaras?? Old printers??