I’ve just realised I had never formelly introduced myself either after all these years: I’ve joined in October 2015, before even receiving my first Fairphone
I’m Antoine, 32 years old, from France, I now live in Montpellier (South of France) but grew up in the Parisian suburb, lived 5 years is Paris, where, after some video editing studies, I also studied teaching, which both didn’t quite fit me, so I became animator for children in schools and daycare centers for almost 10 years, with a world tour inbetween : I’ve travelled through South-East Asia, Australia and New-Zealand for almost 2 years.
When I came back to France, I didn’t really want to settle back in the expensive, polluted and grey Paris, so I settled in Montpellier the year after, where I had some family to host me at first, still working as a daycare animator for children. But now I start to really be fed up with the precarity of the job (it’s almost impossible to decently live with it if you’re not official, which is rare and getting harder and harder) and now with COVID19, I want some more change, so I’ll try different jobs, starting by helping with the pandemic situation.
As for hobbies, I love going to the cinema - my teenage’s sagas and blockbusters (Titanic, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbeans…) are always in my head - and making short films with groups of kids and teenagers (with some basic special effects, they love it), I’m fond of playing theatre - especially improvisation - and videogames - especially Nintendo’s : I grew up with Pokémon, absolutely loved Kid Icarus Uprising on 3DS, became fan of Zelda (playing Zelda BOTW for more than 400h (!) now, but also Mario Kart, Ring Fit Adventure…), I love dreaming, philosophy, talking about politics! Imagining a fairer world while watching the stars in summer until very late…
About Fairphone, a friend from improv’ theater talked about it to me, and a few years after, that’s when I was in Auckland, working in door-to-door fundraising for Amnesty International that I received in January 2016 my first FP2, which I had pre-ordered 6 month earlier!
So I’ve owned a FP2 from launch - several actually, if we consider the 3 swaps due to technical issues, and I’m not even mentioning the numerous modules received under warranty The joys of being “one of the first 17,418”…
But tired by all the issues that remained that tested my patience and commitment to the Fairphone cause - the battery length, the bugs, random reboot and slooooow photo taking - I’ve given it to my father (whose it’s the first smartphone, so he doesn’t bother much) when FP3 came out last year and decided to give Fairphone another chance… So I now own an FP3 - also from day 1 - and except for falling letters of the back cover and a small issue with the privacy filter protective glass, the phone’s working like a charm!
Being a follower of Fairphone for all these years made me want to imply more on the forum, and in real life, so I’ve become an Angel, even if my lack of technical knowledge pulled me from organising events, but I’ve just decided to move forward and launched the Montpellier community topic a few days ago.
I try my best to act ecologically, sustainably, responsibly, even if it is hard in this overconsumption society, which is why I really enjoy watching companies like Fairphone grow from a baby activist company to a bigger social entreprise. I enjoy watching more and more people getting to realise social injustices or about the environmental crisis… In other words: getting conscious of our impact. Better late than never! I like to learn about similar companies and social and ecological activism, so if you get to know any new similar company, feel free to let us know in the forum!