Last Call: Why Does Anyone Own Smart Appliances?

Earlier this week, we talked about how hackers can break into your personal laptops and other home devices by exploiting a security flaw in smart coffee makers. Kitchens are increasingly equipped with everything from smart kettles to smart refrigerators, which can connect to the internet and be controlled remotely from your smartphone. But is there really any advantage to this sleek set of app-based capabilities? Is the convenience they purport to add to our lives a mere fabrication?

I promise I'm not being flippant here. I genuinely want to know why people purchase smart appliances connected to the vast Internet of Things network, because there might be great reasons to spend extra money incorporating these products into our everyday lives that I'm simply not considering. Do smart appliances increase accessibility, for example? That's certainly a promising use case, though this TechCrunch article highlights certain drawbacks to high-tech accessible homes.

To illustrate why I so badly need this education, I present to you a conversation I had with a friend a few months ago:

FRIEND: The best thing I bought myself this year was an Amazon Alexa smart plug. You can use them to control appliances you already have.

ME: Interesting. What do you use yours for?

FRIEND: I use it to make my coffee in the morning before I get out of bed. I set up the grounds and the water the night before, then in the morning I can tell Alexa to hit the start button. It's so amazing to roll out of bed and just pour myself a cup of freshly made coffee.

ME: I do that, too. My drip coffee maker has a timer so you can program it to make a cup every day at, say, 7 a.m. I think most coffee makers do that?

FRIEND: Yeah, but I don't always know exactly what time I'll wake up, so this way I get to brew it whenever I wake up.

ME: I mean, sure, but my timer keeps the coffee hot within a two-hour window of whenever it brews. Isn't that basically the same thing?

FRIEND: Yeah, but this is so much better.

ME: Why?

FRIEND: Well... because, I don't know, I guess it's nice to yell at a machine to do the thing I want it to do. And then the machine does it.

Needless to say, it wasn't exactly a convincing reason to spend $25. Maybe you've got a more compelling argument to share in the comments below? I'll honestly be a lot happier if you don't manage to sell me on all manner of kitchen robots, but try your best/do your worst.