If you keep up with tech and electronic news or have even picked up a sales ad for major stores in the past year and a half, it’s plain to see that smart home devices are gaining in popularity.  For almost every device or machine that is in your home, there is a “smart” way to control it; from washing machines, to your thermostat, to your television and much more, it’s becoming more common to see smart devices in people’s homes.  With the plethora of products and brands out there, it can be a little overwhelming to find the right item to purchase to suit your needs.  In this post, I’ll share some points to think about when you’re looking to buy smart.

What do you want to control?

Smart devices often have settings that let you put timers on the thing you are controlling, or turn them on and off while you are not even home, or schedule a function from the touch of your phone.  Once you think about what you want to do with your appliance or household item, then you know what you can shop for.  Want to turn your central air on before you come back home from a long trip? You would benefit from a smart thermostat such as Nest.  Devices like Philips Hue let you control your home’s lighting.

How much do you want to be involved?

If you are interested in a device that can get to know you and help you in many ways on an every day basis, you want something like the Amazon Echo or Google Home.  These are essentially “smart speakers” that can answer questions, set timers, look up information, add calendar events, and much more.  Not only that, these products often can tell the difference between users’ voices and respond in kind.  They are highly customizable and can make life easier in a lot of ways.

Are you comfortable with the integration of tech into your personal life?

As specialists such as Andrew Charlton have noted, technological automation has been highly unavoidable as the world relies more and more on machinery and computers.  Some people are happy to embrace change and advancement, and others hesitate at the thought of machines knowing so much about them and their lives.  Smart home devices WILL learn about your habits and use them to perfect the way they work for you.  You must make sure you are comfortable with what is essentially computer chips knowing so much about your day to day life.  There are some people who believe that these devices can be hacked into and the information they hold used in some unsavory way; I am not of this mindset.  Authors such as Andrew Charlton have written multiple articles about the future of automation in the world.  It’s up to you to make the decision as to whether smart home devices are right for your life.