Low quality information is easier to produce than high quality information
Even worse, while people prefer high quality information, the preference is weaker than other preferences, such as the desire to see things that are cute or make you angry
I like having smart things for automating certain aspects of the home. It also adds convenience for certain lifestyles. I can control my thermometer thermostat while I’m out of the house, for example, or check in on my pets on the cameras.
This is not advocating for things like what Amazon is doing, to be clear.
weather conditions changed so your house temperature needs changed
you want the house to be warm or cool when you get home, similar to the main benefit of remotely starting a car
I know many dumb thermostats support scheduling, which might preempt the last one, but if - again - you forgot to set that up or you didn’t know when you were going to be home, it would be a boon to have a way to address that.
Also, most of the smart thermostats I’ve seen have temperature threshold alarms. If a fire starts, you would get a notification and hopefully be able to do something about it. Or if the climate control system fails while you’re out, you can respond as appropriate.
I agree that there is no biological imperative for smart home equipment, but I have appreciated mine many times; and I mostly self host, so in theory I’m not giving away data. To me, the only downside is the cost, which comparatively isn’t really all that bad in many cases.
To save money on your electric bill. A smart thermostat will know when you’re not home, and automatically turn up the temperature to keep the bills down. It can also know when you’re heading home, so that it can turn it back down and have the house already cooled for you before you even open the front door.
You can also use them to automatically pre-cool your house at night, when electricity is cheaper. The residual coolness keeps temperatures down and the thermostat doesn’t have to run the A/C as much during the day, when electricity is more expensive
That all sounds good, but aside from the remote control doesn’t seem like any of it would require it to be smart. Scheduling it would do the same thing with a simpler piece of tech.
So far I think you’ve made the best argument for it, though.
If all this stuff actually integrated with other things you owned (regardless of brand) and was under your control instead of Amazon’s it would be cool as hell. Instead it spies on you with a thin veneer of functionality on top.
Having appliances that are aware of your energy costs is a good reason. There is a massive potential for savings if your fridge and thermostat know to avoid running as much as possible during the hours of the day when electricity is the most expensive, for example. That reason alone makes smart home stuff worth it for me.
Also, having lights that adjust their color temperature automatically throughout the day works wonders for my sleep. It’s like having a blue light filter for your entire home. And don’t even get me started on how nice it is to have a smart TV. It’s basically Android for your living room, which means that you can install 3rd party apps and block ads without paying a premium. Who needs Netflix when you can just directly stream torrents to your TV?
TIL about the meme, but to continue hypothetically - any sort of pressure to either hold the ends of the type in the mechanism, or if the tube continues through the mechanism and a “pinch” is done to prevent flow.
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