The Last Time Technology Changed our Homes

We’re living through a time when technology promises — or threatens — to radically change our home and family lives. Experts anticipate that there are over 200 million smart speakers installed worldwide, and internet-connected doorbells, security systems, vacuums, and TVs are not far behind. This has added convenience to our lives (no more losing the grocery list or walking into the living room to adjust the thermostat), and it holds out the promise of a future with a Star Trek-like computer system everywhere around us, giving us an instant answer to even our most inane questions. In addition to the little conveniences that these new technologies provide, they have the potential to change the way our families and daily routines work. Take location tracking. It’s great that my thermostat knows when I’m headed home so that it can warm up the house, but how does the relationship between parents and teenagers change when parents can track their children’s movements 24/7? What will constant, internet-connected video surveillance do to the social fabric of neighborhoods? What will these companies do with all of this data? Do we even want to know this much about our own lives and habits? More broadly, we worry about our ability to afford all of this new technology — which is increasingly becoming part of “normal” middle-class life — given the fact that automation may take our jobs.

This isn’t the first time our homes have been changed by new appliances in unexpected ways. In the early twentieth century, the American home was transformed by new…