Smartphones are messed up. Not inherently, not in every way, and not all of them. But in general, taken as a whole in terms of their impact on people and on the planet, smartphones cause a lot of problems – economic problems, psychological problems, societal problems, and environmental problems, to name a few.
We could just ignore these problems. Avoid ‘em, push ‘em away, clean the fridge and have a few beers first. Focus on other things. But doing nothing is not an option, because nearly all of us need to use our smartphones, whether that’s to do our jobs or to stay in touch with our families. It feels confronting to accept that our relationship with our phones needs to change, because we have become so dependent upon them.
The good news is that there is a better way – one where we make the best of using our smartphones without letting them use us. We can demand phones that align with our shared values (they already exist!); consciously control how and why we use our phones; and help to enact collective change to protect our human rights in a digital age.
Weird Business Models
Our phones exist to make a profit – that is their raison d’etre, and this core value of profit underpins everything about the way they work, how they are produced, and how they influence us. To summarise Donna Haraway, ‘technology is not neutral’.¹¹ If we want to understand the values that are at the core of how our phones work, the motivations behind their design, and the way they impact people and the planet, we have to understand their business models. Spoiler alert: they’re weird.
Let’s start with the hardware. Like most aspects of our phones, the hardware tends to be proprietary and closed (although certain companies like Fairphone are pushing back against this). This marks a change – old PCs could be opened up and tinkered with, but the laptops and phones of today are sealed shut. Because of this, it has become impossible to know exactly how they work. When they become obsolete, we cannot open them and fix them ourselves. We cannot open, understand, and scrutinise what’s behind the screen. This makes studying and regulating our devices painfully difficult, and prevents us from exercising control over them.
It is not just the phones that are closed, but also the software that runs on them. Social media is a large driver of smartphone use, which tends to be closed source and operate in opaque ways. Nonetheless, we have gained some insight into how these platforms operate and generate income. At the end of the aughts, the question ‘How is Facebook going to make any money?’ was a default response to its rapid growth. In 2018, author Soshana Zuboff eloquently described the business model that developed, in her book ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’. In the surveillance capitalist business model, our personal data is the currency, which is bought and sold by a vast network of data brokers who build and trade profiles on people in order to predict and influence our behaviour. In order to gather this data, platforms are designed to boost so-called ‘engagement’ – keeping people scrolling, clicking, uploading, and interacting with content. In this business model, platforms are the means, while the product is you, your information, and the actions you undertake physically and digitally. Smartphones place this business model in our hands and pockets, keeping us tied to it as we navigate our daily lives.
Social media is a large driver of smartphone use, which tends to be closed source and operate in opaque ways
Beyond the intrusive surveillance capitalist business model, smartphones and their software also tend to be driven by a winner-take-all mindset. Big Tech oligopolies dominate markets and concentrate their wealth and power through economies of scale and catch-and-kill practices that buy up and stifle competition. For example, Facebook owned all four of the last decade’s most downloaded apps following their purchase of Instagram in 2012 and Whatsapp in 2014.¹² Similarly, Google solidified their spot in the e-health market with their 2021 purchase of Fitbit. This sort of market dominance is also found in operating systems, with over 70% of phones operating on Google’s Android OS and over 28% of phones operating on Apple’s iOS 2024.¹³
The situation is bleak but, as is the case with our health, we the people have more power to change smartphones’ weird business models than we may realise. As consumers, we can opt for alternative hardware like the Fairphone or Murena Phone, and connected cloud storage from Nextcloud. We can also switch to free and open source software, including more privacy-friendly operating systems and apps that do not include trackers on alternative app stores like F-Droid. Repair cafes¹⁴ offer space and expertise to help us fix the devices we currently have and avoid purchasing new phones. As citizens, we can engage in social movements like The People vs Big Tech to advocate for laws that protect our human rights in a digital age. Progress in this regard can already be found: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), takes a step to protect our right to privacy by regulating the trading of personal data; the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act are beginning to regulate tech markets to be more fair; and ‘right to disconnect’ laws around the world protect people from being constantly tied to their phones.
We the people have more power to change smartphones’ weird business models than we may realise
We shouldn’t get discouraged by the fact that the problems around smartphones have developed so quickly. Instead, we should take hope in the fact that we find ourselves amidst a process that is ours to influence and change. In the future, the current state of surveillance capitalism, closed technology, and filter bubbles may well feel as antiquated as the rotary phone in my grandparents’ basement does now. What comes next is up to us.
Want to learn more?
Visit Waag's Fix Your Phone Shop at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven from 19 until 27 October 2024!
This article is part of a three-part essay Your Phone is Broken written by Max Kortlander. Read the first part Your Phone is Broken - and it affects your wellbeing or the second part Your Phone is Broken - and it affects the planet.
Footnotes
11. Donna J. Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 149-181.
