[ad_1]
Despite the fact that there are currently some 120 million smart speakers in kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms in the United States, most people do not need Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa . In fact, I thought I never own one of these devices, as a matter of principle. Why, after all, would anyone willingly install a business monitoring device with minimal functionality in its most intimate spaces? I do not know, but my house now has three. And I have to admit I'm a little inside, but not for the reasons I could have anticipated.
As part of a home improvement experience, I have a Google Home Max in my kitchen, a Google Home Hub in my bedroom and a Google Assistant-Nest Pack camera. Most of the time, they sit around and interview Google's servers with personal data about me and the life of my wife Jennifer. But there are always moments, especially in the evening, when we call them to life. "Hey Google", we'll say, "what's the weather tomorrow?" Or we'll ask him to play Spotify's music or search for the vet's number. These small requests are not many, but they add to something that looks like useful. But what they allow us to avoid, is more than what they allow us to do: take our phone.
We do not belong to these households with strict phone hours (we do not have children and we are not crazy, so why would we do it?) But as Jennifer and I work long hours in front of different screens We strive to spend time together when we are lucky enough to be at home and without obligation. The fact is that until recently, doing our best usually meant failing miserably, sitting on the couch next to each other, while our attention was miles away, sucked by an Instagram or Twitter madness. , or by any other loss of time due to our dependence on the phone.
Then came the Google assistant and we found that adding this device connected to the Internet to our home actually made us less use the Internet.
After only a few weeks of using Google Homes, we realized that we were dragging more and more without interruption. We would sit and chat at the dinner table after finishing our meals, able to stay in the moment without a phone to get away, even briefly. We would watch TV together, without interruption. We read books and magazines – an activity that, for some reason, does not induce the impenetrable zombie-thud-brain brain that a phone seems to inflict on its users.
This was not intentional. We were not trying use our phones less. Before Google Home, checking the weather or asking random questions on the Internet meant taking my phone to do it. And then, inevitably, I would check a text, Slack, Twitter or any small icon that would have caught my eye. And then I left, in the abyss high definition of my iPhone.
However, when you can simply order an order from Google, you can get what you are looking for and get back to what you have done on other, without the need of a phone.
These little moments where you have to use the Internet, in other words, are a gateway to a real frenzy phone. At least they are for me and Jennifer. And they probably happen more often than you think. By using a smart speaker instead, you avoid being inadvertently sucked online. You do not expose yourself to the full power of the internet tractor beam, so you have better control over how you spend your time without wasting your time. It's a practical thing, if not nothing, and I'm grateful to have discovered it.
As far as I know, science has not yet determined if too much time on the phone is dangerous for health. (Although it's probably bad for your kids.) I work online and I do not have the ability to log out all the time – sometimes I need to stay on the phone during off-peak hours and that's fine . Other times, I feel like digging on Twitter or looking for motorcycle parts on Craigslist, or determining what is the contract of TikTok. But I know that going stupidly on my phone when I honestly rather hang out with my wife and that the pets move me. And I certainly hate the feeling of watching the clock on my screen and realizing that hours have passed without me realizing it.
Is this reason enough to buy a Google Home or Amazon Echo? Maybe not. The features they offer are not really dazzling, although I find them useful for controlling other smart devices. But in most cases, they do some of the things that your phone does without you actually having to be on your phone. And for me, it's enough.
[ad_2]
Source link