Home Automation vs Exercise

Light-hearted thoughts about the way people use technology

A white plastic human-like robot standing in a room. Its head it turned to the side, to look at the camera.
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Selective About Technology

People often expect me to have all the latest gadgets. However, that’s not usually the case.

It’s an assumption they make because I worked for 26 years designing electronic circuits and writing software.

But I didn’t even get a smartphone until the iPhone had been out for six years.

And I don’t have any of those voice-controlled cylinders in my home (the ones made by Google, Amazon and Apple).

The main reason is that I don’t want to waste money on things that might not have much lasting value.

My Big Home Automation Plans

Years ago, when I was redecorating, I ran network cables all over my house. Come to think of it, that was 15–20 years ago, and I’ve not redecorated since!

As is often the case, I got carried away: I ran additional cables, to support my future plans for sensing the temperature in every room, as well as remotely controlling windows and radiator valves.

I never got around to doing any of those things, so none of those cables got used. And when my wife became ill, my priorities changed; automating my house no longer seemed important in the grand scheme of things.

Missing Out

In recent years, I’ve heard a lot about various home automation technologies. Numerous products are available, to control things such as lighting, heating and security.

In some ways, I regret not being involved in the design of any of those products — especially considering all the future plans I once had, to design my own.

Health and Fitness

People seem keen on tracking how much exercise they do, using gadgets like the Apple Watch.

Apple also have their Fitness app, and Fitness+ service. It certainly seems to be a growing area of technology, and I don’t doubt that there are some great benefits to it all.

In my case, the most I’ve done is to use an app on my phone, to monitor cycling and walking.

At the moment, I have no desire to own an Apple Watch — even though I’m missing out on all the health monitoring features.

I stopped wearing a watch when I got an iPhone — I prefer to have nothing on my wrist. To check the time, I get my phone out and use it rather like an old-fashioned pocket watch!

* * * * *

Beneficial for Some

Home automation is great for those who need it. It can be life-changing for people who are disabled or elderly, as well as those with health problems.

But for everyone else, I can’t help but wonder about something…

The Contradiction

Maybe I’m just old and grumpy, but it puzzles me when people use technology to avoid walking across a room to turn on their lights, or close their blinds.
In some cases, they will even use voice control, so they don’t need to press a button.

And they will often spend hours configuring such systems to control several devices at the same time. (Not to mention the time they spend reconfiguring things when problems occur.)

They might also have a robot vacuum cleaner, which often gets stuck in various places.

Then, those same people will use technology to monitor how much exercise they’ve had, how many steps they’ve taken, and how many calories they’ve burned.

* * * * *

I prefer a simpler approach.

I get up and walk across the room, when I need to operate a light switch, or close my blinds. And I do the vacuuming myself.

It might not equate to a whole lot of exercise, but I like to burn some of my calories by doing useful tasks. And doing everything the old-fashioned way is so much more reliable.

* * * * *

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The author first published this article on Medium. It was added here on 3 January 2022.

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