The Digital Divide Research Paper

There are so many Americans that will drop off their old, broken electronics to be recycled, thinking they are being responsible, without knowing the truth. Developing countries are being shipped mountains of our e-waste to “bridge the digital divide” when in reality we just do not want to deal with these products that cost more to fix than they are worth. I will first explain what it is we are doing to these countries, how it affects them, and why it is being allowed in the first place. Then I will tie in my children’s book The Digital Divide and how it exemplifies what is happening in the world of e-waste in developing countries like Ghana. E-waste, a term that is often heard and occasionally talked about in passing, but what exactly is …show more content…
Sounds like a great idea in theory to bridge this gap and really it is something that should be more thoroughly worked on, but instead it is being used as a lie so that companies can ship a whole bunch of electronics that would cost too much to actually fix locally in the US, than they are worth. Another issue with this whole “bridging the digital divide” nonsense is that they are sending mostly broken and unfixable products. These countries are then forced to try to sort through hundreds of broken products to find maybe one or two that actually work. Then there is the issue of people attaining hard drives that belonged to the previous owners. Some of these computer hard drives are being sold on the black market and to crime lords that can easily access information left behind and can be used to steal identities, money or even be a possible threat to the previous owners, all because they trusted that their product would actually be recycled ethically. That’s if they even get a working product. The most these people can do with the broken electronics is scrap them for whatever useful parts they can and then destroy the rest in a hazardous way. It is completely ridiculous and unethical that these countries are being used as a dumping ground by many of the developed countries of the …show more content…
Due to the mass amounts of burning going on, the air quality in these areas is only getting worse, and when the air has become poisonous, what are these people going to do? Then there is the soil that is being contaminated by the piles of garbage sitting on top of it. In addition to all of that is the water that is being tainted by the harmful chemicals being dumped into it. Countries like Dehli and India are among the many countries that have poisoned soil and water because of all the e-waste being shipped into their countries—a lot of it coming from the US. People will die due to these obscene circumstances, yet it is still happening legally, and it will only get worse while the first world countries come out with more and more technology to be used, and eventually dumped in these