Abstract
Using the Internet of Things (IoT) at home is promising but also a conduit for new digital inequalities. People start using IoT in different ways, ultimately determining the outcomes, benefits and exploitations of IoT use. Typical for IoT use is that everyday activities involve more parties, internet connections and internet services. IoT is socially embedded in a network of interdependencies and power balances between different parties. Through qualitative research interviews and house tours among 30 households, we examine how people start using IoT differently and how they position themselves in relation to others in doing so. We adjust operational skills and collaboration skills from a digital skills framework to IoT and construct choreographic skills to address the socio-materiality of the IoT. We find that collaboration skills to increase the effectiveness of IoT use generally relate to cultural repertoires coupled with higher education, whereas choreographic skills to increase the efficiency of IoT use is coupled with an alternative repertoire that utilizes skills outside of higher education. Self-reliance, consequently, is an important distinguishing value for a cultural repertoire coupled with lower education.
Highlights
Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of everyday devices connected with the internet ranging from doorbells, lights, and ther mostats to activity trackers, exercise tools, and heartrate monitors
To gain an understanding of how interdependency chains influence how IoT skills are stimulated as cultural repertoires of action, it is important to first consider the material means of IoT services
Whether via biometrics and health apps that come with a smart watch or the boiler stops working and with its replacement they find themselves connected to an IoT network
Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of everyday devices connected with the internet ranging from doorbells, lights, and ther mostats to activity trackers, exercise tools, and heartrate monitors. IoT skills proliferate effectiveness and efficiency in its everyday use (De Boer, Van Deursen, & Van Rompay, 2019; van Deursen & Mossberger, 2018). In this contribution we take three steps to unravel how the social context at home stimulates certain skills over others for IoT use. The research project is mainly focused in how the Internet of Things is being used, where, and with who. Whether it is for comfort, health, better control of energy consumption, just for fun, or any other experience. We document everything according to the privacy law of the EU
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