Kristen Zelenka
World Changing Response #2

For my first response to World Changing, I read an article entitled “Leapfrogging” which focused on the use of cell phones. I found this article interesting because it made me think of the vastly different cultures people live in and the infrastructure they have. In our society, we completely take for granted what a cell phone enables us to do and the power it has. Almost everybody has a cell phone or at least access to one. This is not the case in developing countries, however, as technology develops, we might be able to start producing phones as cheap as $15, providing many people around the world to gain access to one. This process of skipping over outdated technology is called leapfrogging and many countries in Africa are benefitting from it.

Leapfrogging will help these nations develop faster and greatly raise the standard of living as more people can communicate about goods and services. A single person who has a phone in a village can offer the entire community a link to distant relatives, job opportunities, and prices on the market.

Reading this article made me question how much outdated technology we have, like the copper wires we have buried or strung all over our country, and how much that costs to maintain and fix each year. I know from watching “How Things Are Made” on the Discovery Channel that the United States spends more money repairing roads than it would cost to pave new ones. What could we do with all of that material if we were able to collect it and recycle it? As proven by the ingenuity of scientists and designers, it is possible to make a little material go a long way and have a huge impact on how people live.