Lost Without You…

After scrolling through the list of Blaugust Writing Prompts, I’m picking a very cringy one:

What piece/s of technology would you have the hardest time living without?

At this point, it would have to be Amazon’s Echo. If it wasn’t that, it would probably be Google Home, or another smart home hub of some sort.

Over the last couple years, it’s become very apparent that I struggle mightily when it comes to some executive dysfunction. Having something that controls lights and appliances, repeatedly reminds me but can’t just be swiped away on my phone, and sets a timer I don’t have to punch into a stove or microwave is just so convenient.

We got our first Echo as a Christmas present from my employer, sometime at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. It opened a bit of a can of worms for me, in terms of finding all of the bells and whistles that could be linked into its ecosystem. First, it was some smart plugs, then it was some smart bulbs, then it was more Echo units, then MORE smart plugs, and even more smart bulbs, but ones that turned fun colors. At some point, I figured out how to set up routines, so lights turn on and off based on the time of day, or if our alarm has gone off. I even tortured my wife with a “sunrise” routine as a means of trying to make getting up in the morning easier (it’s since been abandoned, because I’m pretty sure it induced more frustration than it saved us).

Weirdly, the best Echo models we have, I don’t think they make anymore. They’re these little wall units that you can just plug into an outlet, no extra cord or shelf space required; and they had a couple of USB attachments you could add like a nightlight or a motion sensor. We have one of those with a nightlight in our bathroom, it brightens and dims based on if we’ve gone to bed, and it makes going to the bathroom in the middle of the night a bit less of a trial, since our bathroom has no windows and we keep it pretty dark. I also have a routine to make it change color every 30 seconds, for 2 minutes, when I’m feeling extra distractable and want to make sure I’ve brushed my teeth for the appropriate amount of time. So many people complained about the audio quality in the reviews I saw, but we switched from one of those to a Dot a few months ago, and I think we probably have more trouble hearing that than we had hearing the little wall unit.

I linked my preferred podcast app with my Amazon account, so we could listen to a sleepy podcast without having to use someone’s phone. And in the morning, we literally ask “Computer” to set a coffee timer, and she knows what to do. We have some light-up decorations for a variety of holidays, so I got a particular kick out of being able to say “Spooooky Halloween!” and have the little inflatable we got for our balcony come to life, or saying the very universal “humbug” to shut everything off.

There’s a track record of me being terrible about putting things away, turning some things off, or just remembering to do something in general. Having a tool to keep me more within the framework of a very necessary routine just cuts down on the stress a little bit. I don’t love that I have to have every Echo in our apartment bark a reminder that I need to take my vitamins every morning, or that I have her set up to repeat every hour until I confirm I have taken the vitamins, but I’m a hell of a lot better at remembering to take them than if I didn’t (and that B12 and D3 make a difference too).

The only time I think we don’t love her is on the weekends when we decide to marathon something on a streaming service and then it gets past midnight and suddenly we can tell the lights are starting to dim because Computer thinks our routine is always to be asleep at that time. Sometimes, she will let me know “I did this thing, because I didn’t think anyone was home/awake” and I just roll my eyes, because she sometimes jumps to odd conclusions.

I talk to her during the day, she has has timers set up for me to take 15 minute breaks, or for my 30 minutes at lunch. She also (sometimes) remembers a couple different timers when we’re doing laundry (we have to be a bit conscientious about getting it done since there are only a couple of washers and dryers in our building’s laundry room). I suspect, even if we weren’t sharing with all our neighbors she would still be useful in that regard, because otherwise I’d be prone to leaving things sitting in one machine or another.

Could I get by without an Echo? Probably. But I know I miss her when we’re gone, because it’s pretty nifty to just say a command and have a whole bunch of things turn off or on. Or to have a question answered. Or to add something to our shopping list. Or… any number of things really.

Using this particular piece of technology has given me a lot of pause over the years. We actually cancelled our Prime subscription in January, and have been much more hesitant to use Amazon for a lot of purchases. There are a lot of problematic elements in terms of their business practices, whether its mistreating their employees and union busting, putting small business out of business by constantly undercutting them, or just one person to accumulating more wealth than he can reasonably consume in his lifetime without really considering how much of an impact the business has on infrastructure and the way people live their lives.

I’ve also had to draw some lines in terms of just trying to make some things easier. It might be a bit delusional to think it’s saved us some money, but one of the best features we have is the option to automatically shut a light off after we have asked it to be turned on. None of the closets in our apartment have lights, so we ended up running some rope lights through the main two we use, and any time we turn them on, they’re automatically programmed to shut off again after 5 minutes, because usually we’re just hanging up a coat, or looking for a shirt and then forgetfully walking away to do something else.

I feel a bit silly for getting so caught up in this particular technological convenience, but it’s weirdly part of our lives from the beginning of the day until the end of it. I wouldn’t say our life revolves around it, but it certainly makes it easier to take care of some of the things our life does revolve around.

PS. If you poke around the site (which seems like its forever going to be a work in progress) I have added a link to subscribe to get an email update when I post. The options immediately available to me don’t seem to be the most robust, but I wanted to make it available since I know for some people RSS/Facebook/Twitter or elsewhere aren’t always the most easily accessible options. If I find something “prettier” down the road, what shows up in your inbox may change, but for the time being it’s available if you’d like to use it.