this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months, according to a recent survey by Reviews.org, and that cycle is getting longer. The average was around 22 months in 2016.

While squeezing as much life out of your device as possible may save money in the short run, especially amid widespread fears about the strength of the consumer and job market, it might cost the economy in the long run, especially when device hoarding occurs at the level of corporations.

Research released by the Federal Reserve last month concludes that each additional year companies delay upgrading equipment results in a productivity decline of about one-third of a percent, with investment patterns accounting for approximately 55% of productivity gaps between advanced economies. The good news: businesses in the U.S. are generally quicker to reinvest in replacing aging equipment. The Federal Reserve report shows that if European productivity had matched U.S. investment patterns starting in 2000, the productivity gap between the U.S and European economic heavyweights would have been reduced by 29 percent for the U.K., 35 percent for France, and 101% for Germany.

(page 2) 44 comments
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[–] 5in1k@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 hour ago

Fuck this shit. Pay us more.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

This is utter bullshit. I've not bought a new phone in 7 years and even then the economic damage causes by my purchasing habits in those 7 years is an insignificant spec in the face of the economic damages wrought by the single Walmart in my home town each month.

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

Only 29 months?! That’s a bit wasteful unless it’s being handed down…

[–] Veedem@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I’m on a 3 year cycle with the iPhone, now. Last one I held on to for 3 years and the 15 Plus I have now is going to be in use until, at least, the iPhone 18.

I don’t really give a shit about the impact on the economy.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 hours ago

I guess I’m on a 6 year cycle. And I’m currently 4 years in on my current phone.

I’ve been at 5-7 years for technology cycles since the 1990s, so I’m probably not impacting the economy that much.

So… is the economy in a bubble, or do we need more people in the economy? Because we don’t need people buying the same thing every two years.

[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 5 points 8 hours ago

I have a Skylake box that still functions perfectly.

Yes, there's more power draw then I'd prefer, but why would I upgrade when I use nix and don't game?

I always have a spare phone on hand, because I literally use my phones until they no longer turn on.

Again, I don't game, and Pixel's have an active ROM community and long-term updates, why would I upgrade any earlier than that?

[–] dparticiple@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 hours ago

Perfectly happy with my iPhone 14 Pro Max, which has better build quality than the current offering, and my half decade old Surface Book Pro (running Linux, naturally) -- also built like a tank. When I need extra compute or storage, my NAS and home server await. For really serious stuff, I can always fire up an EC2 instance. Propping up the economy through consumerism is not my concern. This feels like a sponsored piece, akin to all of those articles after COVOD exhorting us to go back to the office full time.

[–] kyonshi@piefed.social 4 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, I mean, it came up from my phone company lately, and I didn't see a point in changing yet. My phone is fine, the battery is the only thing that could be a bit better.

[–] Themosthighstrange@lemmy.world 3 points 26 minutes ago

Oh I'm sorry AI can't buy devices, pay us bitches

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Technology is hardly worth the bother these days. It's jumped the shark.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Why are we always expected to change our behavior to benefit the economy? I need to buy more? The economy is all made up why can't it change to meet the needs of the people?

[–] tgcoldrockn@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

That collar round your neck? Silicon Valley. They are the overseers. The technocrats are kings, and your friends and family won't think another second about it. You lost privacy. Your lives are surveilled and sold on the market. Your splitting hairs over minutia and stupid fights over anything but regaining civilian autonomy over your life and data pleases them. More distractions are coming everyday in the distribution channels they control.

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Stop releasing new devices that are worse and/or much more expensive.

[–] MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago
[–] flandish@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

capitalists hate this one thing!

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