The Device Delusion - Why Laptops & Smartphones aren't a luxury anymore

Last weekend, as I was aimlessly browsing the web, I came across an article that outlined how German discount retailer Lidl had started a scheme to hand out free period products to girls & women in need, a laudable and worthy cause. It requires online registration and an app to get access though, which caused a whole flurry of comments and outrage online. Nothing new there. It was one of the arguments used by the detractors that really got my blood boiling though, when some idiot proclaimed that anyone who owned a laptop, or a smartphone was wealthy enough not to need that scheme in the first place. Seriously? Are you fucking kidding me? I do realise that I'm in a position of incredible privilege by being in a position in which I'm able to afford some pretty decent hardware and I'll be the first to admit this. However, this supposed luxury argument hasn’t held any water whatsoever for years, probably for over a decade at this point. 

While I’m pretty sure that argument was made in bad faith and was born more out of misogyny and disdain towards less well-off people in general, let’s take a look at that whole thing in detail, starting with laptops. As some of you may know, the very first laptop I ever bought with my own money was an Acer Aspire One 110L, a netbook running Linux. Back in January 2009, when I bought that thing, it cost 235€, which, while not inconsiderable, wasn’t really expensive even then. Mind you, I was working a near minimum-wage job at the time, so I wasn’t exactly flush with cash myself. Ever since then, low-price laptops have been around in one shape or another, whether they’re netbooks, Chromebooks, or larger-sized low-price Windows laptops, not to mention Android tablets and the like. All of that refers to new devices bought in-store, and completely ignores the thriving second-hand market for laptops of all shapes and sizes, charity donation devices, or hand-me-downs that are passed on within the family. 

Cheap laptops have been a fact of life ever since the emergence of Netbooks such as my old Acer Aspire One in the mid-2000s.

On the second-, or third-hand market, even basic MacBooks are now available in price ranges that all but the most destitute should be able to afford.

Okay, that’s the procurement aspect out of the way. I really hope I don’t have to elaborate on the whole utility aspect of laptops, given that we’ve just completed month 14 in an ongoing pandemic-related lockdown. Still, in order to make things so clear that even a Daily Mail reader can understand it, a laptop is effectively indispensable going into the third decade of the 21st century. Whether it’s job hunting, banking, dealing with social welfare, Revenue, or other government bodies, having access to a computer is often a prerequisite to effectively accessing many services. Never mind that most jobs require at least a basic familiarity with modern productivity suites, whether that’s Microsoft Office, Open/Libre Office or whatever Google calls their office suite these days. Without having this basic knowledge, you’re pretty much locked out of the labour market for all but the most basic entry-level positions. This isn’t really a new development either. Looking back at my own job search experience, this has been an expectation going back to at least 2007, although I was obviously still in Germany at that point. 

Android tablets are often available dirt-cheap even new.

Let’s look at the smartphone aspect of this whole issue next. The situation here is broadly similar, though of course smartphones are a bit of a newer arrival. Still though, from 2011 or 2012 onwards, cheap but usable Android devices were easily available. Combined with the fact that even prepaid mobile data has always been comparatively cheap in Ireland, at least for the period that I’ve lived here, and that Wi-Fi hotspots are commonplace, this makes smartphones pretty easy devices to operate even when otherwise squeezed for money. All this means that the barrier to smartphone ownership in Ireland is surprisingly low, which is all the more evident when you see Pay-As-You-Go offers for smartphones and SIM cards that cost between sixty and eighty Euros for a pretty decent smartphone. Once again, this does not extend to the thriving secondhand market for smartphones, family hand-me-downs, gifts, or donated devices. There are numerous options for even people in dire straits to get their hands on a usable phone.

Now, with regards to the utility of smartphones, the situation is a bit different. I’m not aware of any government agency that offers usable mobile apps to their service users. However, mobile devices have still become a definite fixture in everyday life. With landline phones declining year over year for some time now, they are the main means of telecommunication for many people. Honestly, I can see people who are strapped for cash anyway to opt for a pre-pay smartphone over the expense of a landline. All of that is before the utility for online banking and other similar services even comes into play. Humans are also social creatures by their very nature. We’re not cut out to be solitary, we need to interact with other people. Smartphones enable this and consequently, people will use them just for that purpose, even if that means making cutbacks in other areas of their lives. Demonising them or denying their destitution simply because they want to stay in contact with others is dishonest and despicable.

Going hand-in-glove with this aspect is the whole debate about “premium” smartphones being in the hands of supposedly poor people. This is an argument that’s often thrown around to discredit whole segments of the population, from social welfare recipients to refugees. This is really the height of hypocrisy. As I mentioned above, smartphones are just a fact of life in this country, and in the western world in general. And let’s be honest here: Who out there is able to tell one Android smartphone from another? Who is able to see if a phone is a Samsung Galaxy or an LG unless they’re actually holding it? Honestly, the only reason people are even able to recognise any iPhone is because of the Apple logo on the back, if you remove that, even a pretty distinctive device like, say a (Product)RED iPhone XR becomes nigh-on indistinguishable from the likes of Xiaomi or Huawei. 

So please bury these tired old cliches and stereotypes. They don’t hold water. And get our bloody head wrapped around the fact that we’re in the third decade of the 21st century. Computers of all shapes and sizes are a fact of life and have been for decades at this point. Get with the times already!