In my never ending quest for a clutter free life, I decided on Sunday that I didn’t have the energy to get out of bed, but I could always bring drawers from the dresser in to bed with me to clean them out. In one of my drawers, I came across what I like to think of as that special place where gadgets go when they are no longer needed or loved. I found three old cell phones, two phone chargers, and two pagers.
Pagers? Does anyone even use a pager anymore? The only time I ever see pagers, they are those awesome text pagers that get whole messages – not basic old-fashioned pagers like these. All this technology got me thinking if I have some sort of gadget addiction.
Gadget addiction is nothing but the use/abuse of gadgets so much that it starts negatively influencing your health and life as a whole. The worst victims of gadget addiction are children and teenagers. It’s because both of the age groups are have mind-sets that compel them to explore things around them. Some see gadgets as a mode of exploration and learning. But, for others they become sources of entertainment, resulting in addiction.
Now let me tell you the alarming statistics of gadget addiction: Over the past year, the number of gadget addicts has increased has grown by 123 percent. In March 2013, the number of gadget addicts was 79 million and by the same time this year the number has increased to 176 million addicts. So, this is the alarming rate of increase in gadget addiction. No wonder, if we don’t control it, there would be a gadget addict in every household very soon. The worst victims of gadget addiction are the children and the youth. Starting from communication modes to gaming apps, they use anything and everything on a daily basis. Mobile or gadget addicts are the ones who use such things 24/7/365. If you really love gaming, then you definitely have to buy league of legends accounts.
The cell phones? At least one of them is completely gone. It was a Aerial phone, and Aerial is long gone. Is that what T-Mobile is now? I noticed that the phone had a sim card in it. One of the phones is my old Nokia 5160, and it works with Cingular – so at least I might be able to do something with that one.
What do I do with the rest of them? Is there a market for these things? Should I try to sell them on eBay? Since there is a really big market out there for gadgets, now just anyone can go and find different gadgets online, so I should to sell them to this market, or just keeping them gathering even more dust?
What do you do with your old unloved or unwanted gadgets when you replace them? Where do old gadgets go when they die?
24 replies on “Gadget Guilt…”
The problem that I have is that I just can’t bring myself to throw gadgets away. I have sold some items on ebay, there is usually some person that has a need for old stuff like that. If they don’t sell, I safely tuck them back in my gadget box to keep forever and ever.
I am pretty sure that you can donate the cell phones to a womans shelter. Even if they are old and have no service they are still able to call 911.
like your drawer, i have a gadget shelf… one of the several cell phones up there is my original Motorola Flip-Phone. big and heavy as a brick, i still can’t bring myself to get rid of it.
Take it to Verizon: HopeLine Recycling Program
Some of the other posters beat me to it, but donating them to a shelter or women’s program in your area is the best thing to do.As long as the phone works, it could help save a woman’s life.
Alltel (who is our cell phone provider) has boxes for donations of old cell phones in their offices. I have 2 pagers, never use them, used them when I worked outside the home though. Been 3 years now. I just have them in a drawer of gadgets like you do. 😉 We donated the old phones, put all the accessories in a ziploc bag with them.
More specifically you should donate them to The Houston Area Woman’s Center on Waugh.
http://www.hawc.org/
We were looking for stuff in 30 some odd boxes that we haven’t unpacked in 7 years (YIKES) we found baby albums and letters from my Rookie when he was at sea (military). Oh what a romantic. Oh yeah – 6 (SIX!) Apple computers. Whats a graphic girl to do?
Unfortunately, one phone doesn’t have a battery, and the Aerial phone won’t work because Aerial is out of business. The Nokia probably still works, so if I don’t find some great use for it all of the sudden, I’ll probably donate that one.
…they all sound like good ideas, I just wanted to say that I thought it was cute that you brought your drawers into bed with you to clean them out. Even when you’re being lazy, you’re productive! 😛
You can still donate the Aerial phone even though they are out of business. It’ll still dial 911.
I’m almost scared to do a cellphone roundup. Chitlin has a knack for getting salesmen to give her the old floor models, and even though they don’t work, she looks mighty impressive.
Yup. There is a cell phone graveyard that I have…I think 3 old phones…but the best is that somewhere, my mother has the pre-cell phone “car phone” around. It involved a bag and a cord connecting to something that looked like a cell phone that needed to be plugged into the cigarette lighter to work…
donate it to the houston area women’s center. they can refurbish it and give it to a woman who has been abused to call 911 if they are in danger.
What do I do with old gadgets? Girlzilla and I take them apart and use the interesting inside bits in my junk sculptures. Been a while since I’ve done that though.
There is an organization that takes old cell phones and gives them to women that are under the protection of restraining orders against violent spouses. This is a great program for old cellphones. I wish I knew more about this org (our company used to collect old phones for this), but I’m sure a bit of searching (that I don’t have time to do, as I’m in class right now) would reveal the name.
hey you can also give the phone to the HEARING VOICES SOCIETY. it’s an all-encompassing society that includes any illness that has “hearing voices” as a symptom–such as schizophrenia, alcoholism, etc. they use the phones to mask the fact that they are hearing voices and this way they can “talk back”. this sounds ridiculous but i’m so serious!
I know that like sixty thousand people already posted this, but have you considered giving them to a women’s shelter. I had one of those big ass brick cellphones that was the size of a Korean War era walkie-talkie. You know the big brick with the bendie antennae? Well, I’m pretty sure there is some woman that feels she got the short end of the stick because she got stuck with my piece of shit 1990 phone. You should donate it so my woman won’t have to feel so bad about here phone.
As far as the pager, put it on vibrate and hit redial. A lot. 🙂
Be sure you recycle the unusable ones. They’re toxic if you send them to a landfill.
Cell phone? Who needs a cell phone nowadays? I just wear aluminum foil on my head to directly receive messages from loved ones.
We donated a phone to charity and received a receipt for the tax write-off. Can you hear me now?
I’m an anachronism. I’ve never had a cell phone. I’ve never had a pager. I don’t even have cable! And I still have a land-line.
I’m doing my best to live in a world that still believes in humanity and courtesy, rather than convenience and contrivance. (I do seem to be losing this battle, though.)
The women’s shelter ideas are outstanding, that would be my first donation choice. Here is a link (I am html retarded, please forgive me!) to a great site for recycling these things: http://www.collectivegood.com/
While I am here and actually coming out of hiding (lurking), I want to thank you for being such a positive, cheerful person, you are a ‘happy beacon’ in the middle of a lot of negativity online. I really enjoy coming here because when no one else has anything good to say, I know you will.
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Susan, if you are looking to get rid of all of your 6 apples (are they laptops or desktops?), please email me at _jadoogar@excite.com