Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life

At Home with Smart Technologies is a follow on from The Smart Home which was published at a time where it was thought that the smart home would have materialized by now. It was believed that technology would take on more responsibility and that life at home would be more relaxed because there would be less labor for humans. But it never became a reality what happened? Since the publication of Inside the Smart Home homes have altered or rather homes haven t altered but what people do in homes has changed. Divided into four sections: State of Play, Technology and Social Practice, Identity and Family, and Infrastructures of the Future, this book explores how they are different, why they are different and how they might continue to alter. It includes an in-depth study of the changing intersection of technology and human habit in the home setting. For example, the increase in the use of search engines and online gaming. It demonstrates how interactive entertainment and broadcast content are affecting the domestic hearth. It also looks at how technologies are changing the sense people have of themselves as members of households and families. New technology can create a nearness of families in a real and virtual sense, for example, video calling using skype.