Disposable technologies: The halfwayness of USB portable hard drives

This article draws from a pilot study examining people's use of portable hard drives and USB sticks in Melbourne, Australia - an important initial step in identifying the ways in which USB portable hard drives hold enduring personal, social, and economic significance. We explore this significance through reluctances to dispose of USB portable hard drives, partly for environmental reasons, but also because of concerns over the data stored on them. In direct tension to these concerns is an ephemeral sense of ownership, where USB portable hard drives are always disposable from the moment of acquisition. We also explore views on, and negotiations of, these paradoxical issues in regards to the disposability of USB portable hard drives.