People Are Taking Pride in Using Old Devices

You might call it the longevity flex. As more cell phone services offer constant phone upgrades as soon as you hit the one year anniversary for using your device and improvement on phones year after year becoming meaninglessly incremental, there is a growing case for why there really is no need to upgrade your device so relentlessly. Now, a French company has created a sticker designed to help you celebrate your refusal to upgrade. These stickers, designed to be used as a badge of honor, broadcast the years you have been using your device and are inspired by the Swiss habit of retaining their car toll vignette stickers year after year.

"Instead of lecturing people about e-waste, it makes longevity a flex. That cultural reframing aligns with a broader pattern worth replicating: brands and creators finding ways to make sustainable behavior socially desirable rather than morally obligatory."

What do you think? Could this sort of virtue signaling make a meaningful difference in how long people choose to keep their devices? Or would a monetary message work better where someone could visualize just how much money you are giving away to device makers and cell phone providers by choosing to upgrade each year?