VHS DVD and Climate Change

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VHS and DVD.

What's that? Is it a virus before COVID-19?


It’s no laughing matter. Technology has always been there, and the proof is in your basement, attic or old suitcases. Take a walk down memory lane and have a good laugh.

Kids are experts on the subject, so your teen kids will think VHS and DVD are relics because they use cellphones to make their own music videos and movies. They live in a world of streaming, trending, chats, gaming and other digital things they call ‘cool’.

Technology has its pros and cons. We are more conscious of it now, because of the accelerated speed. One product today, it’s outdated after a year.

No problem. We’ll throw out yesterday’s headphones for digital ones. Recycle them? Not on your life. But product development is not the only culprit responsible for climate change.  It is tech mistakes.

Example. Your first home desk had skyscrapers like hard drives. Let’s not forget the printer. Today your desk has one tenant, the laptop. However, it is another good example of things that contribute to climate change.

Once upon a time, we said goodbye to the keyboard because tech companies decided to embed it inside the machine. They also got rid of the mouse. It couldn’t scurry around looking for rats because technology imprisoned it inside the laptop below the keyboard.

Travel light. I think that was the idea, make computers easy to take on the road and the plane. It took us some time to learn how to drive the inbuilt mouse. I guess someone took noticed and missed mickey mouse.

All’s well that ends well. You can buy a separate keyboard and mouse for your laptop. It was a tech mistake and it costs us the environment. We cannot bring back the mice and keyboards we threw away.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

  

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