The Smart Home Revolution

We’re all spending a lot more time at home these days. The world is changing. And we are adapting. We have been bringing technology into our homes and our lives for the past decade, but it seems the past month has seen an exponential increase. We’ve been dreaming of smart homes for years. Ranging from Disney thrillers to this story we posted a few years ago, about how smart homes help people be more independent. 

It’s important to note that there is a difference between letting Google turn a light in your home on and off, and a fully automated home you can control with your ipad or phone. Home automation devices have slowly begun to make their way into our homes, and we’ve become increasingly comfortable with them. We have security systems, thermostats, lights, and locks we can control from our smartphones no matter where we are. Now, it would seem the screen time debate has been put to the back burner. We are throwing open the doors for technology and welcoming it in with open arms. 

The merits of technology are indisputable. It helps us stay connected to the people we love, even when we can’t be near. Social networks and smartphones are making social distance a little less distant.  Businesses rely on email, video conferencing and apps to do business without being at a physical location. As Alexa, Google and Apple are increasingly more prevalent in our homes, we come to rely on technology even more.

That’s not to say it’s all good news. Those very same devices are likely to be listening to all your conversations, and their convenience comes at the cost of your privacy. While security measures are increasingly being put in place, we still don’t know how this will all play out. 

It has certainly changed the way we do business at Grand Banks. Construction is quite literally a hammer and nail industry. But it’s been evolving over the years. We now do most of our communication by email. We can get our customers' quotes quickly this way, and the chain of communication is logged in case we need to double check some details. It’s helped us stay more organized and streamlined, so that we are better equipped to get our clients what they need. 

And now as the global pandemic strikes, we’ve jumped even further into the wealth of technology. We’re holding meetings with clients and going over plans on a video call and all our resources are available online. Although we’re not together in the office, our team is staying together with daily video chats and check-ins. The ability to stay connected from far apart is powerful. 

While it’s hard to say what the world will look like on the other side of social distance, perhaps what we’ll find is that the technology we’ve integrated to help us through this sticks around. Maybe, instead of never figuring out exactly which switch controls the light outside, we’ll be able to ask Alexa to turn it on for us. Or at the very least, they will be clearly labeled on a device so we don’t have to hit every switch to get the right one.