You've been waiting in line for hours to get your hands on the newest version of your smartphone,
promising quicker access to information while featuring quick and intuitive on-the-go banking,
a built in GPS to help you get to that concert you've been so desperately waiting for, and
of course, the easiest tools to help you share that cute cat video on your social networks.
The world is at your fingertips. While our smartphones can easily connect us
to the rest of the world, the processes and resources involved in manufacturing, distributing,
and selling smartphones to customers are not so simple. iPhones for example are the direct
result of over hundreds of thousands of people spanning over nineteen countries and three
continents. From concept and design to the different components and phases involved in
the development of the iPhone, these components each have a different development process
and are often sourced from a variety of countries. From semiconductors then accelerometers, to
memory chips and application processors, these parts are all eventually sent to China where
factory workers follow a meticulous one hundred and forty one step process to assemble an
iPhone in less than twenty four hours. By the end of 2014, over seventy million iPhones
were assembled and shipped to stores across the world. The cross-border production of
the iPhone represents just one of the processes of globalization.
International communities, organizations, corporations, and individuals are becoming
increasingly interconnected through economics, politics, culture, and the environment. The
increase of countries opening their borders has promoted substantial proportions of global
trade. In economically developing parts of the world,
lower wages relaxed laws, and reduced taxes have made it more profitable for multinational
corporations like Apple to manufacture products overseas instead of in their home countries.
Undeniably, globalization has helped consumers access and create a diversity of products
and services at a lower price and at a quicker pace.
Although the idea of increased international trade and faster technological development
seems like a pretty good thing, is globalization beneficial to everyone? What is the true cost
of achieving that lower price point? Sourcing cheaper labor often results in hiring overseas
workers that migrate thousands of miles in search of employment, like the many who migrate
to Shenzhen, China to work for the Taiwanese owned technology company Foxconn.
These deprived workers struggle to feed their families and a difficulty obtaining adequate
health care because they pull in less than a living wage, earning as low as an equivalent
of one dollar and seventy eight cents US an hour. Foxconn is frequently in the spotlight
for their unethical factory conditions, and strenuous work hours, and their unbearable
working conditions resulted in fourteen workers committing suicide in 2010.
Similar work condition have been documented in mineral mines around the world. The quest
to obtain minerals has not only contributed to harsh mining conditions and increasing
environmental degradation, but is also supported the funding of the ongoing civil war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo through the illegal mining and selling of conflict minerals to
technology companies around the world. As technology allows us to connect with one
another on a global scale, this awareness has mobilized individuals around the world
to campaign against this injustices. Encouraging companies to become more transparent and share
information about their products origins. These companies are taking action by mandating
safer work conditions, enforcing fines for in-compliant suppliers, and even threatening
to move business elsewhere. New companies are also following suit in response
to the ongoing criticism of the technology industry. Fairphone, a Netherlands based smartphone
company is employing these standards by committing to ethics based production and sourcing methods.
Where do we go from here? It's easy to point the finger at corporation
and blame them for the negative social and environmental impacts of smartphone production,
but is there something more we can do as consumers? What is our responsibility as part of the
global supply chain? The next time you pickup your phone to check out that cute cat video,
remember the combined efforts of the people around the world who worked to make your phone.
The world is truly held at our fingertips.