Right To Repair Therapy

Right to Repair Therapy

For me, right to to repair isn't just about ewaste, and preventing corporate gouging.

It's about mental health. Being able to fix your gadgets is therapeutic. Empowering. Good for the soul.

Today I fixed my expensive bluetooth earbuds. Their batteries couldn't hold a charge for a full hour. (Turns out this was due to a botched firmware update and totally Sony's fault!)

This is the guide I used:

iFixit

Sony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Earbuds battery replacement

This repair guide will show you how to replace ...

We tried a course of new firmware but the patients continued to deteriorate (as the specialist predicted.) Surgical intervention was unavoidable. The patients are currently convalescing in the charging dock. The procedure was smooth and they will only have minor scars, but a full recovery cannot be guaranteed until they reach full power and take one last course of software updates.

Surgery was successful. The seams won’t be the same ever. But it’s only noticeable if I look for it.

In a world full of complex technology it's easy to feel small and helpless. And maybe I'm too much of an idealist, but I think that if everyone could experience the joy of fixing or modifying a gadget now and then we'd all be a little more open minded, a little more daring. A little harder to push around.