Digital Ethics Book Project Reflection Format
 

Is “ethical smartphone” an oxymoron?

Holly Richmond

Monday, March 28th, 2016

http://digitalethics.org/essays/ethical-smartphone-oxymoron/

Ethical Smartphone

First Impression:

I think it has something to do with smartphone being ethical or not.

Quote:

"Smartphones kind of suck"

Reflection Proper:

We live in a world where smartphones are important to use. We check it so many times that sometimes we think, how can we live without smartphones. With smartphones, communication has been quicker and less expensive, one can contact someone around the globe with just one click, and can even see the person through video call. Smartphones are really a third hand to us but companies making these are not ethical. From the article, making phones is not an easy task, they say, one needs 30 minerals in making a smartphone. Imagine how task inducing that is and as stated by the article, extracting these minerals sometimes produce "hazardous fumes and toxic wastes".

In the Philippines, we have many natural resources where companies can extract minerals to make use for a smartphone. The article did not state anything about the Philippines but we can be one of the sources for the minerals. Companies who are not ethical can actually go here and extract these minerals because of the corrupt government we have. Even though we have laws prohibiting these, just a little "padulas" and everything is okay.

Fairphone is a company where they strive to be ethical in making phones, and we as humans who want to keep the world safe must help these companies and support them the best we can or else one day, we live in a world full of people with cancer due to the toxic waste, a world where, we cannot eat fish because even the marine life has been damaged due to wastes thrown in the river, or  a world where we cannot breathe normally due to the hazardous fumes in the air.

5 Things That I've learned:

Fairphone exists.

Congo has many minerals.

Fairphone is a Dutch company.

Fairphone started in 2013.

Fairphone is not sold in USA.

5 Integrative Questions:

What minerals are used in a phone?

What UN doing about the ethics in making phones?

How will making conflict-free zones make creating phones more ethical?

How will we survive without phones?

How is it that Congo has conflict-free zones and child-labor free zones?