Troubleshooting the connected home: Exploring the perspectives of non-initiators

Abstract

Living with technology often entails work related to management and repair of it. The emerging literature on the work that goes into managing home networks and digital technologies has described it as ‘digital housekeeping’. Within this literature, a single person is often identified as being responsible for the domestic tech work and this is the same person who initiated bringing the technology into the home. However, remaining household members and persons who have been gifted with such technologies are under-researched, despite studies showing them to be vulnerable to skewed power dynamics and technical malfunctions when the responsible person is not around. Applying digital housekeeping as a theoretical lens, this article explores how people identified as ‘non-initiators’, that is, those living with smart home technologies but who did not initiate bringing the technology into their home, deal with malfunctioning devices. Drawing upon interviews with five identified non, this study provides an in-depth exploration of their troubleshooting routines conceptualized as diagnosing, performing, and delegating. Findings suggest that non-initiators also engage in digital housekeeping through troubleshooting, although this work is largely unacknowledged by themselves and others. Moreover, the image of non-initiators as vulnerable is nuanced by highlighting their active participation in the connected home. Non-initiators use smart home devices for daily activities, and they have the knowledge, skills, and resources to draw upon when encountering malfunctions. Furthermore, the non-initiators’ troubleshooting routines are affected by the devices’ materiality, the household’s social dynamics, and to some degree by societal perceptions of technology, age, and gender. This paper contributes to the existing literature on smart homes and digital housekeeping by emphasizing non-initiators’ contribution to digital housekeeping and by highlighting how their agency is asserted in line with their interests and needs.