Steggy

I was just thinking about all these home appliances that are now “smart”….and I realized that it’s got to be men who decided we need these things.

Women still do the majority of housework. I, myself am a stay-at-home Mom. It just occurred to me how all these smart appliances can add an extra time/mental load to everyday chores.

I want to *not* think about my refrigerator for more than the 5 seconds it takes me to open the door and put something in or take something out. I want to load my dishwasher, push “start” and walk away. Likewise my laundry.

These are chores. This is adulting stuff that I don’t want to do but I have to do. The last thing I want to do is faff around with an app on top of that.

So, yeah, the tech bros are increasing my mental load and I want none of it.

Now, having written all that, I realized that many of those smart features can be really helpful for people with disabilities. OK! BUT, make *comparable* models that aren’t “smart”, AND don’t spy on people using the devices.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#technology #smarthome #patriarchy #techbros

Mar 26 at 2:26amWeb
Show threadLeigh Garland1d ago
@steggy cut to me standing in front of an enigmatic washing machine interface, having to decide whether I want "bath and bed" or "wardrobe dry". I did not know you could put furniture through these things...
Show threadFlorian21h ago
@muep @steggy As a person with a disability, blindness in my case, nope. I fully agree. Buttons, on the device itself. they worked, there was nothing wrong with them, but apparently we need touch screens on ovens so we can cover them in flour and apps for our fridges so we can ... what ... only load groceries in with one hand while dismissing a subscrpiption for KeepCool®(tm) so it doesn't get hacked by the toaster? It's a mess.
Show threadTurre20h ago

@zersiax @muep @steggy Touch buttons (and screens) on appliances are horrible.

I have dry hands. Most of the time I need to breath into my fingers a few times before I can get our dryer to start up. It buggers the living daylights out of me every time - it's such a STUPID THING. Similar story with our airfryer, sometimes the touch buttons react, sometimes they don't. So you need to pay close attention to which presses register and which don't. Which is just annoying, even if it's a relatively small thing.

Gimme good old buttons, PLEASE.