The Digital Human

The new emerging ecosystems as a consequence of the development in our world as digitalization is prevailing and gaining increasing importance, have led to new ways to generate benefits. That is, ownership is not in the same traditional meaning neither are the players in the market. The concept of ownership is transmitted to be more beneficial for companies and limited for individuals. All this contributed to the emergence of such movements that advocate the consumers’ right to reuse and repair the things that fall under their ownership with no limitations from bigger manufacturers. Not only the unbalanced relations in the market but even the environmental challenges that also emerged due to developments in the world have contributed to the matter. One example of such a movement is The Repair Project.

The matter is gaining attention due to the clear shift that humanity made and still is making to digitalize the world. In other words, manufacturers are changing the terms of ownership, and the production is much more becoming digitalized rather than physical products. Manufacturers are no longer selling the product one time but they are selling the accessibility to use the product. For example, video games such as the CD-games are decreasing noticeably while gaming is becoming more digital and online-based.

Digitalization has pros and cons and in this regard, the cons are more about a very important aspect of ownership which is the right to repair or modify our purchased items to be according to our taste. Furthermore, manufacturers nowadays produce items that are interconnected and that constitute a whole ecosystem. Consequently, we do not purchase things and keep them but rather, we subscribe and lease more which makes us lose the value of our purchased items while manufacturers keep them. Therefore, the podcast raises an important question about ownership and about unbalance in the market; can we take the control back and how much power do we have in our ownership? Without clear answers to those questions, the ownership is void.

Our rights to reuse and repair what we own are multidimensional and very important. Not only because of the economics that is related to it but even it is an important aspect of the environmental challenges in the world. Klaus Seig (2021) writes about that and he states that purchased electronic devices constitute a part of all global waste which in turn contributes to the environmental challenge in a negative way (Siege, 2021).

Moreover, the matter is, as mentioned, not only about the environment but even about the social aspect of ownership. That is, consumers’ around the world consider reusing and repairing their purchased items. This is why products should be designed to be repaired which among other things includes software updates and support by manufacturers as the production is becoming more digitalized, according to Peter Yeung (Yeung, 2021).

References

Yeung, Peter. 2021. “The country rejecting throwaway culture”. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210128-right-to-repair-how-the-french-are-fighting-avoidable-waste

Sieg, Klaus. 2021. The EU is giving citizens the “right to repair” electronics — here’s what that could mean for the world. Ideas.ted.com.https://ideas.ted.com/how-right-to-repair-legislation-can-reduce-waste/

Source evaluation

a) I used in this presentation two sources which are articles published on ted.com and bbc.com.

b) I am presenting a relatively new issue and the sources accordingly, should be current and updated. The sources that I use in my presentation are published in 2021 and discuss the matter in 2021.

c) The information presented in the sources related directly to the pod that I listened to. That is, to the right to repair and reuse by the consumers. Thus, the sources are relevant to the presentation and the presented information.

d) The first source “The EU is giving citizens the “right to repair” – Here’s what this could mean for the world” is created by Klaus Siege who is a German journalist who writes on different matters. The second source, “The country rejecting throwing culture” is written by Peter Yeung who is an award-winning journalist with a focus on social anthropology.

e) The information presented in both articles is supported by evidence from other sources, mainly, from official reports about the matter. Moreover, the information in the sources can be verified in other sources as well.

f) Both articles aim to inform the readers and raise attention to the matter of ownership and the right to repair and reuse. Authors objectively present the information without having their subjective thoughts about the issue. They provide in this way a balanced view on the matter.