According to a new survey conducted by Decluttr and its associated infographic – included below – the average American home has around $264 worth of unused technology just sitting around. That amounts to around $33 billion in technology, both outdated or just unused that is currently just collecting dust. That’s said to include various devices and items ranging from smartphones to cameras, PCs, and game consoles. It bears mention that Decluttr hasn’t provided the specifics about how its survey was conducted or what methodology was used. It is also actually a well-known site for buying and selling used technology, so it may be that the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Having said that, the figures aren’t altogether surprising, with regard to other trends in technology addiction and how expensive those technologies can be.
Of course, it also makes sense since as many as 60-percent of those surveyed didn’t keep the tech laying around for no reason. In fact, that’s the number of respondents who have two or more smartphones just sitting around their homes – with the vast majority of those being manufactured by Apple or Samsung. Of those individuals, half were said to keep the devices around as a backup device while the remaining 30-percent keep them around as a way to keep any remaining bits of private data safe. It’s moderately surprising that so many don’t trust a factory reset to remove personal information. However, reports as recent as 2017 have outlined how a substantial amount of data can be recovered even after a factory reset. So the concern isn’t completely without merit. On the other hand, more than 20-percent simply didn’t know what to do with their now unused devices once they got a new one.
Aside from cell phones, 40-percent of respondents are said to have a camera in the home that they no longer use, while 25-percent each had PCs and technologies in the uncategorized “Other” portion. The remaining 10-percent is, occupied by homes with game consoles that sit unused. Perhaps most surprisingly, according to Decluttr, as many as 32-percent hadn’t even considered that reselling unused technology was even a possibility.
