Category Archives: living room

apartment living, language, living room, society

This Trend Is a Mess

Clutter has long been shoved under beds and banished to storage units; it is the villain of an entire genre of television. But messiness is a part of most people’s lives, and instead of angling their cameras away, some are now documenting, or even flexing, their imperfect homes online in all of their gory detail.

https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/style/clutter-messy-room-tiktok-instagram.amp.html
dystopia, ethics, forecasting, history, innovation, internet of things, living room, society, surveillance, technology, the home

We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

The goal of consumer tech development used to be pretty simple: design and build something of value to people, giving them a reason to buy it. A new refrigerator is shiny, cuts down on my energy bills, makes cool-looking ice cubes. So I buy it. Done. A Roomba promises to vacuum the cat hair from under my sofa while I take a nap. Sold! But this vision of tech is increasingly outdated. It’s not enough for a refrigerator to keep food cold; today’s version offers cameras and sensors that can monitor how and what I’m eating, while the Roomba could soon be able to send a map of my house to Amazon.

https://www-technologyreview-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/21/1061260/innovation-technology-what-happened/amp/
apartment living, architecture, bedroom, fashion, kitchen, language, living room, luxury, society, the home

How Architectural Digest became the new Vogue

A new generation of digital-native celebrities, relaxed about the blurring of boundaries between public and private lives, have embraced celebrity home tours as a tool to promote their personal brands and to challenge public preconceptions. Emma Chamberlain, a social media influencer who found fame via YouTube, confounded expectations with her sophisticated taste in mid-century design and grown-up love of a kitchen island and copper taps when a video of her home went viral. When Khloé Kardashian posts content showing her impeccably organised pantry on YouTube, it is greeted with the kind of swooning comments that were once reserved for Carrie’s walk-in closet in the film Sex and the City.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/feb/10/how-architectural-digest-became-the-new-vogue
artificial intelligence, living room, robots, surveillance, technology, the home

Amazon’s Roomba Deal Is Really About Mapping Your Home

A smart home, you see, isn’t actually terribly smart. It only knows that your Philips Hue lightbulbs and connected television are in your sitting room because you’ve told it as much. It certainly doesn’t know where exactly the devices are within that room. The more it knows about a given space, the more tightly it can choreograph the way they interact with you.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-05/amazon-s-irobot-deal-is-about-roomba-s-data-collection
apartment living, cities, health, living room, robots, surveillance, sustainability, the home

This bird-shaped monitor drops dead when your indoor air is bad

Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors, where the air can be 5 to 10 times more polluted than the worst outdoor air. Bad indoor air, including high levels of CO2, has been linked with fatigue, headaches, and even respiratory diseases, all of which could be alleviated by airing out your home. That’s why two designers created Canairi: a minimalist monitor that nudges you to open the window without using blinking lights, warning sounds, or phone notifications. And no, there’s no app; just simple, intuitive design.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90747448/this-bird-shaped-monitor-drops-dead-when-your-indoor-air-is-bad
artificial intelligence, dystopia, ethics, forecasting, generations, health, innovation, living room, surveillance, technology, the home, virtual reality

What the metaverse might mean for kids

And not fully understanding the difference between a virtual world and real life can have darker consequences as well. Graber says that playing a game in which you’re attacked with a gun or knife can feel more intense to a child than an adult. And metaverse worlds could expose children to bullies or even pedophiles in new, scary ways.

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/family/2022/02/what-the-metaverse-might-mean-for-kids