There's no technical reason electronic devices can't function for 20 years or more. I'm sure many of our ebook readers will still work 20 years from now, if they haven't been thrown out.
But we have some cultural dynamics that render them obsolete long before they stop working:
- need for manufacturers to make a profit by selling as many as possible (little or no incentive to make products that have lasting value)
- consumer appetite for new features and capabilities
- savvy marketing designed to manufacture demand, and make people want to buy stuff they don't need with money they don't have
- technological advances lowering cost, Moore's law etc. that accelerate rate of change
- environmental costs (of resource extraction, recycling, disposal) are socialized and/or passed on to future generations to deal with
And so forth. It's a chaotic mess, and it's not particularly sustainable.
I'm fortunate in that I have a genetic indisposition to spending money. Still, it is all I can do to keep myself from wanting to replace a perfectly functional ebook reader I've had less than 9 months.
