Recently in the news, there have been stories about the new iPhone—the features, the how to’s, and the user favourites. Yet among these stories, there are also ones that don’t paint such an amusing picture as the rest of them do. While the gadget is highly loved for its many sleek and cool features, the size of the bill isn’t.
The gist (to save you a click): An iPhone user had posted up a video on YouTube showing viewers the length of her phone bill, most of which, according to the news, were recordings of instant data transactions which didn’t incur any costs. The length of this bill was 300 pages.
Being a pay-as-you-go cell phone user myself without a monthly bill in the mail from my service network, I was shocked at seeing a bill that had to be sent in a box. I don’t know if there are other phone/service bills out there like this one. Perhaps there are. But, this iPhone case is the first one that I had ever heard of.
As neat and compact as the iPhone is, its service bill has the potential to outweigh the gadget itself.
The former seems like a hands down better choice than having to pay for a hard copy of something you could save electronically—and, even more efficiently, in a PDF.
Connection to the topic at hand? If there was ever a real world example on a small scale of how computers could save paper, time, money, and the environment, it was shown in this story.
It’s just a matter of using your computer in the right way to avoid situations that can produce that kind of unnecessary waste. Ebilling is just one of them.
What are other ways in which you can help save the environment from right in front of your computer?
Here are five ways to get you started.
1)Work Digitally—A popular tip already being practiced. Using word processing and authoring applications saves on the amount of paper used to handwrite numerous drafts. If you have a laptop, portable device or some other electronic recording device, use it to take notes and record meeting minutes instead. Also, try to get in the habit of backing things up with external storage devices instead of in hard copy. When it becomes absolutely necessary to produce a printout, print double-sided copies.
2)Computer Parts—Yes, computers do take up a lot of environmental resources to make, and can create even more pollution than you can reduce. This also goes for getting rid of your old ones. How do you try and solve that one? The phrase, “Reduce, reuse and recycle??? also applies to computers. Try out a refurbished computer when shopping for one, or donate and recycle your old one.
3)Subscribe, Download, and Email—Computers are great, if not made, for such things. You can cut down on the amount of garbage produced by software packaging and paper with a click of the mouse. And because the Web is a HUGE network, it’s the number one ideal way to distribute material and reach a wide range of readers on a global level.
4)Work at Home—Everybody’s dream. The best part about working with computers is that you can work from home. Computing technology has made it more than easy enough to access your office PC, communicate online, and collaborate over documents (–in PDF, of course). If you’re at home, there’s no need to drive in and add to the exhaust emissions hovering in the air. The picture perfect job, no?
5)Change Your Computer Habits—You can’t get far in helping the environment without doing so, electronically or not. The most energy being wasted due to computer use will depend upon the way in which you actually use your computer. Here are some energy saver tips to adopt and practice if you’re a Windows user or a Mac user.
Has going tech just been put into a whole new perspective? I think so.
