Two promises are built into smart home technology: convenience and peace of mind. By just tapping a button on your phone, for example, you can lock the front door and activate your motion sensors or cameras. You can program your thermostat, turn off the kitchen lights, and close the garage door from anywhere in the world – as long as you have an internet connection and your phone.
If there is a downside to any of this, it’s the fact that technology has exploded at a rate that makes it impossible for most consumers to keep up. From smart plug arrays and multi-angle outdoor spotlights to AI-capable motion trackers, it is easy for homeowners to get lost. It’s easy for them to shut down thanks to smart home fatigue and feature overwhelm.
A good way to prevent feature overwhelm is to avoid the temptation of believing that more is better. When it comes to smart home tech and electronic home security in particular, more devices only increase the chances of being overwhelmed by them. It’s better to start slowly and build up from there.
Feature Overwhelm: How It Happens
The interesting thing about feature overwhelm is that it rarely occurs instantaneously. Rather, people are gradually overwhelmed by a combination of technology enthusiasm and aggressive marketing tactics. That combination ultimately affects device and platform choices. It can lead homeowners to dive in too quickly without realizing they will be in over their heads. Here is what it looks like:
1. Impulse Expansion
Imagine starting with a simple setup including some window and door sensors and a video doorbell. After a while, you start seeing ads and store displays encouraging you to buy new devices. Everything looks shiny and new. Everything is a temptation. Before you know it, you have expanded your system well beyond your ability to understand it.
2. Complex Systems
Vivint, a leading home security provider and the company behind the HomeProtect package, explains that a lot of security providers try to attack the market by building complex systems that pack every conceivable device into the box. These over-engineered systems are too much for first-timers to deal with. Consumers end up with decision fatigue along with a system that is way more than they need.
3. Mobile App Proliferation
Trying to do everything at once comes with a subtle trap you may not recognize: mobile app proliferation. Buy a single device and you are likely to get a mobile app with it. Invest in half a dozen devices with no centralized hub and you’ll be left with multiple apps to control them all. It will not take long before your phone has so many apps that you can’t keep track of them.
Once these three things settle in, you are officially a victim of feature overwhelm. You have so many options that you simply can’t make good decisions. Ultimately, you’re left frustrated with smart home tech that has not met your expectations. The promise of a smart home feels more like a curse.
The Risks Are Not Always Visible
With feature overwhelm come a number of risks. Unfortunately, the risks are not always visible. The first among them is alert fatigue. It is the result of having too many devices that aren’t set up properly.
Every camera, motion sensor, and smart device can send a push notification to your phone in response to rather minor events. For example, your video doorbell could alert you to an intruder when, in reality, it was just a blowing leaf that passed in front of the camera.
The danger of receiving too many alerts is your brain conditioning itself to ignore notifications. It’s the old ‘cry wolf’ scenario. You stop paying attention to your phone because you just assume every notification is a false alarm. But that’s not all. Some of the other risks include:
• Human Error – Human error is a natural result of feature overwhelm. One of the most glaring examples is routinely forgetting to arm your home security system when you leave home. If it is not armed, it’s not helping you.
• Maintenance Stress – Every component you add to a smart home system requires maintenance. You’re managing a dozen wireless sensors, changing batteries, troubleshooting dropped Wi-Fi connections, and updating firmware.
• Technical Friction – A complex system with all the bells and whistles introduces technical friction if you don’t know how it all operates. You also increase the chances of excessive false alarms that lead to municipal fines.
We have all faced situations in which we shut down because we were overwhelmed by too many choices. It’s part of being human. But when shutting down impacts how we use smart home and home security tech, the results could be quite uncomfortable.
Avoid Overwhelm With a Purpose-First Approach
So, how do homeowners looking to get into smart home tech avoid feature overwhelm? Experts recommend adopting a purpose-first approach. In simple terms, the approach suggests building a smart home system around your actual daily habits rather than hypothetical features you feel you cannot live without. A purpose-first approach:
• Focuses on core vulnerabilities first.
• Utilizes a single point of control.
• Prefers professional simplicity over DIY clutter.
• Prioritizes intentional scalability.
Though it might seem unrelated, the purpose-first approach also keeps the homeowner’s budget in mind. Building a system based on what you actually need helps you make use of every dollar you spend. On the other hand, allowing yourself to be convinced that you need every device with every feature overwhelms both your mind and your bank account. For a broader purchasing framework, NIST’s consumer IoT baseline outlines cybersecurity capabilities worth considering across connected home products.
Not Having Everything Is Okay
It seems to me that one of the reasons consumers get caught in the feature overwhelm trap is the fear of missing out (FOMO). If FOMO is something that you struggle with, know this: it’s okay to have a smart home system that doesn’t include every bell and whistle. It’s far better to have a system you understand and can use properly than one that overwhelms you to the point of paralyzing you.
