I’m Not Getting A New Phone… And That Is Exciting To Me

For the first time I can remember we have no plans of upgrading our iPhones this week even though neither of have current models (I have a 12 Pro Max and Joy has a 12 Mini).

In my twenties it seemed like I had a new phone every 6 months or so. This wasn’t so much because I wanted something new but that I was super hard on my tech in general. I dropped phones from my pocket while riding my motorcycle, in pools and even lost one when it fell out of a Cessna 152 during flight after the door popped open. I couldn’t even tell you how many phones I had even before smartphones came out but I can tell you that I never got a phone to last for more than a year.

By the time smartphones came out I started upgrading annually not because I had to but, up until my iPhone 6, because I wanted to. It’s a fact I think is due to just being so used to needing new phones combined with a career change into tech leaving me excited for the next “shiny” thing.

Since moving to Florida I’ve tried to slow down my phone updates and have made it two years on two separate phones, first my iPhone 6 which lasted a full two years and then my Google Pixel 3XL which also lasted two years at which point both broke irreparably and with high enough repair costs that I traded them in instead of tried to have them fixed.

I haven’t needed a new phone in a very long time, there’s no denying that. However, even when I wanted to keep one longer it just never seemed to work out. This makes me excited for the iPhone 14 release, not because I’m getting a new one but because, for once, I don’t think I’ll have to. Our current phones are in great shape and still under Apple Care so, with a bit of luck, I’m really hoping they’ll last for quite some time yet.

The fact is that not only is the environmental cost of new tech outrageous but there is simply no need for the new models. No one’s life will change because they traded in last year’s model for this year’s model. Assuming my old phone doesn’t break I’m far more excited that I might be able to keep it for another year than I used to be for trading any given phone in just because a new model is out.