Light at the end of the tunnel: disappearing up my own arse:

[ToughButterCup]

I love to loathe tech stuff. So this article from The Atlantic magazine hit home with me.

 

The text below is ChatGPT's summary edited and reformatted by me for easier readability.

 

“Smart Homes Are Terrible” by Jason Fried argues that the current wave of smart-home technology often makes everyday tasks more difficult rather than easier. The author, a tech industry veteran, recounts his experience staying in a high-tech rental home full of connected devices and automated systems that, in practice:

 

Require multiple apps, tutorials, or menus just to do simple things like turn on lights or set the temperature.

 

Have poorly designed interfaces (e.g., unlabeled panels or touchscreen controls that aren’t intuitive).

 

Create friction, lag, and confusion instead of convenience.

 

Make basic actions harder than with traditional analog controls (like flipping a switch or turning a dial).

Ultimately, he suggests that smart homes have become too complicated and unreliable — and that simple analog solutions often work better. 

🏠 Examples from the Article

Lighting panels needed tutorials just to operate.

 

Television and kitchen appliances were complicated by app requirements and obscure interfaces.

 

Thermostats and security systems involved navigating deep menus rather than straightforward controls.

 

A digital lock on the gate didn’t work properly, forcing use of a traditional key instead. 

🧩 Broader Context (Not Just The Atlantic)

To balance the article’s criticism, here’s how smart homes are generally viewed in technology and industry trends:

 

📈 Adoption and Trends

Many homeowners expect smart technology to become essential by 2030, driven by convenience, energy efficiency, and integration. 

 

The smart-home market continues to grow with devices like smart thermostats, speakers, and security systems becoming more common. 

🔧 What Smart Homes Can Do Well

Remote control of devices via apps or assistants like Alexa/Google. 

Automated routines (e.g., adjusting heating based on presence). 

Potential energy savings by optimizing usage. 

 

 

Security and privacy vulnerabilities if devices aren’t configured securely. 

Interoperability issues between different brands and systems (though standards like Matter are helping). 

 

The Atlantic Magazine February 2026

[JohnMo]

Yep

A 21st century essential, just like thermostats were in the 20th and still are to many - that isn't essential and doesn't add value.

 

It's all needless tatt. I do have home assistant, but use it as a simple go to place to see stuff, never found control over the long term reliable.  If it stopped working, I wouldn't replace it. 

 

[ToughButterCup]

I'm desperate to read @Pocster's take on this. I get the feeling he's a TechnoKing

[MrSniff]

We have “smartened” (is that a word, I feel it should be) our houses, mostly for security as we spend time away - lights, shutters etc - and central control does also bring some convenience, but we have kept physical switches for everything as well for simplicity of use. We don’t use smart speakers as I don’t quite trust them, only Homekit as the hub which keeps it local as opposed to cloud based.

[Onoff]

55 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

I get the feeling he's a TechnoKing

 

Well it ends in "ing"...

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

makes everyday tasks more difficult rather than easier.

No shit.

[-rick-]

It's not just smarthomes. The trend for EVERYTHING to need an app is so annoying.

 

I like the idea of various smart features (never lived in an automated place) but key for me is that it should add things on top, not make things harder.

 

If you can't invite your families oldies and technophobes to stay at your house without them asking how to make something work you are doing something wrong. The basic stuff should work even if the smart stuff is broken and it should all work without the internet.

[JohnMo]

Our new heat pump has the "App", I did connect to it, you can set time scheduling, set quite mode, turbo mode and holiday, but an utter waste of time when you do WC, so killed the connection.

[SimonD]

9 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

Potential energy savings by optimizing usage. 

 

Well, this is just plainly naive, isn't it? What about all the infrastructure and energy required to run all the cloud functionality? I've worked in the tech. sector since the 1990s, mainly on the business side and I have specifically designed my house to not have any smart technology baked in whatsoever - you just can't trust them in any way whatsoever.

[Pocster]

9 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

I'm desperate to read @Pocster's take on this. I get the feeling he's a TechnoKing

Yeah that’s all wank . The entire point of automation is you don’t do anything .So lights / heating etc come on automatically.

1 button push ( SWMBO friendly ) causes ust projector to come on , shelf slides out , amp turns on , 120” ( I’m big ) screen goes up and the pants ( blinds ) come down .

User interface if you must have one must be simple and intuitive - anything other is poor design . You should see what I’m working on ….. people need simplicity even if under the hood it’s a bitch . Anyone care to look under my hood 😉

[Pocster]

8 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

Well it ends in "ing"...

(expletive deleted)ing ?

pricking ?

sucking ?

mofo ing ?

[Nickfromwales]

10 minutes ago, Pocster said:

(expletive deleted)ing ?

pricking ?

sucking ?

mofo ing ?

We had to go and poke the sleeping bear with a filthy stick now, didn’t we…..

[SteamyTea]

46 minutes ago, SimonD said:

10 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

Potential energy savings by optimizing usage. 

 

Well, this is just plainly naive, isn't it? What about all the infrastructure and energy required to run all the cloud functionality?

That is a really good point and one I have not thought about.

A very quick web search seems to show that 1 TB of data uses between 40 and 70 kWh/year.

If each 'user' has 1 GB of data, that is around 0.055 kWh/user.year, or 6W.

A Raspberry Pi, running headless uses about 3 W, with a bit of tuning, about a watt (what mine uses.

An ESP**** about a tenth of that.

To that figure, the energy usage of 'smart switches' needs to be added, regardless of if it is cloud or locally connected.

Another quick web search gives a result of 1W for a Shelly Relay.

So that could be another 10W for a few connected devises, or ~90 kWh/year.

With a cloud connected service, the energy usage of the data transport has to be taken into account.  So a local router, a share of the local telephone exchange (or 4/5G), 3 to five internet servers etc.

 

So it is probably cheaper to use a local service, that is hard wired if possible, but not as good as a manual switch.

 

Food for thought.

 

[SteamyTea]

5 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

poke the sleeping

Only with consent, or a face mask and rubber suit, don't want to leave 'evidence'.