The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
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Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#2The rise of manufactured controversy: the hidden work of seeking gender conflict in smart homes
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#3Article is kind of light, but there is a surprising amount of work that comes with smart technology. Now, when I visit my parents, instead of getting asked to help fix something physical, I get asked to help diagnose smart light bulbs that for some reason have a single bulb that works but won't connect.
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#4For me, pretty much none of the "smart home" stuff with rare exceptions (e.g. my bedroom was never updated with a light switch) actually does anything that saves me any real effort. There are a ton of things I'd like to just wish away but they require manipulation of the physical world.
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#5Article is kind of light, but there is a surprising amount of work that comes with smart technology. Now, when I visit my parents, instead of getting asked to help fix something physical, I get asked to help diagnose smart light bulbs that for some reason have a single bulb that works but won't connect.
I have been fixing my grandparents IT stuff for the past 30 years, it's nothing new. I remember how happy I was I'm now an adult (15 or so, well over a decade ago) with enough authority to pass this on my brother.
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#6Article is kind of light, but there is a surprising amount of work that comes with smart technology. Now, when I visit my parents, instead of getting asked to help fix something physical, I get asked to help diagnose smart light bulbs that for some reason have a single bulb that works but won't connect.
That’s why we are living like luddites. During house renovation nothing smart comes inside despite complete new electrical installation. There come thick cables for wallbox and heat pump, but that’s all. I am so tired of barely working apparently simple electronics.
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#7Been thinking about this recently and how best to pass on/handover these digital responsibilities onto my spouse/eventually my children.
I'm going through a home reno and walk to document everything but dunno where how to start. [1]
It's only getting worse in terms of volume of 'smart' items, planned obsolescence of these items, trying to reduce reliance on BigTech.
[1] Related HN discussion -https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38444577
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#8For me, pretty much none of the "smart home" stuff with rare exceptions (e.g. my bedroom was never updated with a light switch) actually does anything that saves me any real effort. There are a ton of things I'd like to just wish away but they require manipulation of the physical world.
For me the one irreplaceable ‘smart home’ feature is circadian lighting. There are ‘smart’ fixtures that will do this themselves but I’ve found scheduling on a per-room basis to be workable (albeit at times a maintenance headache) for coming on 12 years now.
Absolutely can’t live happily with dumb lights only. It’s not just aesthetics - I believe it has a major impact on my sleep health.
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#9For me, pretty much none of the "smart home" stuff with rare exceptions (e.g. my bedroom was never updated with a light switch) actually does anything that saves me any real effort. There are a ton of things I'd like to just wish away but they require manipulation of the physical world.
I've found the same. I've been interested in smart homes stuff for 10+ years. My dad had z-wave in his beach home 15 years ago (not exactly an early adopter, but it was pre-HomeKit and pre-influx of cheap wifi devices).
Between flaky software/firmware, fear of network security, device incompatibilities, and the slow but steady enshitification of all the things, the industry has been a real let down.
I have a Smartthings hub, 4 z-wave switches, 2 z-wave wall warts, a handful of Sonos speaker (pre-voice assistant models), 2 HomePod Minis, one old Echo mini, and an Apple TV.
The Sonos and Echo pre-date HomeKit. The Echo only exists to add voice control to Smartthings and Sonos. "Alexa, play music in the living room" "Alexa, turn on the outside lights". Sadly, Sonos's software has been on a downward spiral for a few years now. The latest iOS app is less intuitive and reliable than the previous. And my wife's iPhone 16 Pro wouldn't connect to the network for months - I eventually had to shut it all down, hard reset everything, and rebuild the Sonos network. I'm done with them.
The Apple TV was bought for TV (duh), but serves as the Homekit base station. The HomePod Minis replaced a couple of Sonos in our bedroom (see above). But, Spotify doesn't play natively on the HomePod because Spotify and Apple seem to be in a state of corporate Cold War. So, that kinda sucks.
I'd love to add a few more light switches, but I'm reluctant to add any more Z-wave since it doesn't talk to Homekit (without rolling some sort of 3rd party bridge, which means adding another device to my network and managing it manually myself). So, I'm kind of stuck with what I have until I find the gumption to replace it all with Caseta or similar.
It's all a big old mess. But at least the shitty ecosystem has kept the house relatively uncomplicated. My wife manages to use all the things without much trouble. So I guess that's a plus.
Re: The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology
#10For me, pretty much none of the "smart home" stuff with rare exceptions (e.g. my bedroom was never updated with a light switch) actually does anything that saves me any real effort. There are a ton of things I'd like to just wish away but they require manipulation of the physical world.
I've found the same. I've been interested in smart homes stuff for 10+ years. My dad had z-wave in his beach home 15 years ago (not exactly an early adopter, but it was pre-HomeKit and pre-influx of cheap wifi devices). Between flaky software/firmware, fear of network security, device incompatibilities, and the slow but steady enshitification of all the things, the industry has been a real let down. I have a Smartthi…
I have a couple Apple TVs but they're basically for TV and music. My pair of Alexas, the one in the bedroom is basically to turn on a light that doesn't have a switch and set an alarm. I can use it for music but rarely do.
I do have an RPi camera that I now have to figure out why I can't connect to and a thermometer that is supposed to alert me below a certain range that I also need to debug. But that's about it.
Give me SmartHome that can load and unload the dishwasher and I'd be happier.