from Hacker News

The rise of digital housekeeping: the hidden work of smart technology

by finnjohnsen2 on 11/27/24, 3:50 PM with 39 comments

• by datadrivenangel on 12/3/24, 1:53 PM

  Article 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.

• by ghaff on 12/3/24, 2:12 PM

  For 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.

• by justsayinginnt on 12/3/24, 2:15 PM

  Been 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

• by epiccoleman on 12/3/24, 2:57 PM

  I haven't really gotten into "smart home" stuff, but I can definitely relate to the idea that the modern tech landscape can often create a ton of busy work.

  Just look at my TV, for example. The way TV used to work was that you turned it on and the TV was on. Now, even though I've got a relatively friendly setup with an Nvidia Shield, a "user" still has to navigate through some menus to get what they want to watch on the TV.

  And of course, every so often, one of the various streaming services will log out, which will take some manual intervention to get back up and running. There are three TVs in my home, so between them all I'm playing tech support on a TV at least once or twice a month.

  And don't even get me started on the rigamarole involved with getting my kids set up with Minecraft. Servers, Realms subs, linking Nintendo and Microsoft accounts... I don't know how anyone without some tech in their background can even navigate that mess.

• by ibaikov on 12/3/24, 3:09 PM

  Just a couple days ago I tweeted that I was surprised how good home assistant is and how far smart home stuff went. It is so reliable that I only had one cheap bulb failing, which I could prevent just by googling and finding out it's an unreliable model.

  I have a lot of smart devices. What's more important is that I have way more automations you'd expect from that number of devices. I even have smart tv switch to and autoplay a youtube playlist with new movie trailers that it makes automatically for me. I just click on the movie that I want to watch as usual, but it shows trailers and then plays the movie. This is magic and it is reliable. The only problem is to set this up of course, but it became so much easier with home assistant, I can't express how much I am amazed by an opensource software.

• by AlfredBarnes on 12/3/24, 3:07 PM

  I thought this article was going to be about organizing things in our digital lives.

  A lot of devices are pivoting to being "smart" but they aren't viewed as appliances. They need to just work, not be fancy. I have a lot of appliances that have some sort of wifi connection ability, but i don't need a notification on my phone when my laundry is done it already sings a song, or I've set a timer.

  The items in my house that actually are helpful to have on our wifi, and be "smart" are the ones that I fret about being off or closed in the case of our garage door, or outside lights.

• by ishtanbul on 12/3/24, 6:03 PM

  There is potential for an excellent experience but it is far from the average one. If you have a technical person set up home assistant and keep physical switches (eg lutron caseta), everyone can win. But most people who buy a smart bulb have never heard of home assistant and may not have the patience or ability to learn. I think HA could do a better job at attracting and onboarding the average consumer.

• by sneak on 12/3/24, 3:10 PM

  Now multiply it by 5 in terms of time if you want your smart devices to not constantly phone home and spy on you.

  The ubiquitous private “anonymous” surveillance built into everything is the main dystopia here. People lack the imagination to see how it will inevitably be misused.

• by m4tthumphrey on 12/3/24, 2:42 PM

  We just finished a home renovation and the only "smart" thing I did was ensure every room had ethernet connected to a 16 port switch. I did however get Hive (remote thermostat) installed when we moved in 8 years ago.

  These houses with smart locks etc scare me.

• by williamcotton on 12/3/24, 3:10 PM

  See:

  More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave

  By Ruth Schwartz Cowan

• by valval on 12/3/24, 1:51 PM

  The rise of manufactured controversy: the hidden work of seeking gender conflict in smart homes

• by beshur on 12/3/24, 3:29 PM

  Now I have to keep React Native version updated in the family wishlist app I made "for fun" 7 years ago.