My smart fridge tried to order 12 gallons of milk because it thought I was depressed

So this new fridge has a 'wellness sensor' that tracks food removal patterns. After I had a quiet weekend and didn't open the veggie drawer much, it sent a notification to my phone suggesting I might be 'nutritionally deficient' and offered to auto-order a 'comfort bundle' from its partner store. The choice was letting it make this weird assumption or turning off the health tracking completely, which also disables the expiry alerts I actually need. I turned it off, but now I have to manually check dates on everything. Has anyone found a good middle ground with these overly helpful home gadgets?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan_ramirez2d ago

Patricia's article nailed it with "solutionism". My fridge's water filter alert now texts me weekly, which feels like a sales tactic disguised as care. We're paying extra for gadgets that invent needs just to solve them.

patricia_mason2d ago

That "wellness sensor" tracking your veggie drawer is so creepy. I read an article calling this stuff "solutionism" where gadgets fix problems that don't exist.