The smart home, a true home? How new technologies disrupt the experience of home for older persons

Abstract

AbstractSmart home technologies (SHTs) can support older persons to age in place. However, adoption of SHTs remains low among this population. A reason for this is that they are not accustomed to having a home that is technologically enhanced. In this article, we focus on the older persons’ lived experience of “home” and show how SHTs potentially disrupt it. In consulting the currently available literature, both theoretical and empirical, we propose and use the concept of somatic capability assessment (SCA) in the discussion surrounding the design of SHTs for older persons. First, we propose SCA as a concept to grasp how humans take decisions while relying on their physical body, undisturbed by suggestions from technologies. Furthermore, we show that SCA functions best in a familiar and private environment—the home. SHTs have the potential to make the home seem unfamiliar and exposed, precisely through added data and the resulting suggestions, as we show through related empirical studies. Thus, SHTs hold an increased disruptive potential for older persons at home. By introducing SCA into the discussion of SHTs for older persons, and thus paying attention on how SHTs potentially disrupt the experience of home, further advances the ethical discussion on the adequate use and design of technologies in daily life, especially for the group of older persons. Our analysis offers important insights for the design and implementation processes of SHTs for older persons.