How I take back control of my digital household

The idea of being the master of the home has changed drastically over the years. Back in the 80s it was about keeping the lawn manicured, the pantry stocked, and the laundry hanging. Today it’s so much more complex, with technology layered into almost every aspect of family dynamics: managing the mesh WiFi, making sure the power banks are charged in case of a blackout, and handling parental controls for the kids’ apps.

Back in the day, I didn’t need to remember phone numbers because I had them all in the phone book. Now I talk to them on Facebook. I don’t even need to open the door anymore. An app controls the automatic gate and a CCTV camera speaks to the delivery rider. Did I trade human warmth for digital convenience? I now live in a hyper-connected reality where every relationship is mediated by a screen.

As I’m writing this piece, I have my phone beside me  monitoring the output on my solar panel that I just deployed in the garden. I make sure the power banks are plugged in, in case of an emergency, because when the power goes out, I always go, “we forgot to charge our power banks!” Earlier this morning, while the kids were getting ready for school, I got a notification on my phone that the refrigerator door was left open, so I called them out, like any parent would, to tell them to be more mindful of the appliances. So, I ask again, have I traded human warmth for digital convenience? Apparently not.  Technology has simply added another layer to everyday family life.

Article continues after this advertisement

You see, there are two sides to it. As a parent, I need to be hyper-aware of everything: managing my work from home, keeping tabs on the parent-school group chats, and just making sure everything works. I’m the man of the house. The guy with the apps. The “one phone” to rule them all.

I remember a skit from Louis CK where he was being told off by somebody because he was on his phone while taking his kids to the zoo. And he said it was precisely because of his phone that he’s able to take his kids out while also doing work. Again, there are two sides.

We survive amidst chaos

For the past decade, I’ve evaluated the home setup on a single, brute-force metric: my router speed. As the kids grew and as we shifted to a work-from-home setup, a household of two internet users turned into a household of four, who are almost always connected to the internet. Our smart home appliances have grown from one CCTV to half a dozen, with an additional four robot vacuums. And don’t get me started on the smart TV and other appliances. As I’ve grown older, the real quality-of-life metric is no longer about speed: it’s simplicity. I’m no longer asking if our internet can stream 4K video (because that’s already a given); I’m now asking if my connectivity hacks at home are making my life easier.

Here’s another example: Consider the monthly billing gauntlet. The average modern Filipino household doesn’t just pay for their internet connection; they pay for a baseline fiber plan. Then they pay for individual mobile data allocations for kids commuting to school or university. They pay for a separate cable television subscription so the grandparents can watch the evening news, and then they stack various streaming platforms on top of that for the weekend family movie nights. This is my situation now as I have at least three streaming apps (we sometimes rotate app subscriptions and binge!), I’m managing my mom’s cable subscription (she lives right beside me), and I’ve recently pooled the entire family into Smart’s Magic Data to make billing easier.

Article continues after this advertisement

Each of these represents a different service provider, a separate login, a unique due date, and another potential vector for a service interruption if a credit card expires or a payment app glitches. It is giving low levels of dad anxiety—a collection of digital chores that we didn’t ask for but are forced to manage. There was a time I was getting notifications that I hadn’t paid for a gaming subscription, but I knew I did! Turns out it was my son’s subscription that I forgot to renew after one year. I was racking my brain trying to figure out why I was getting a failed billing for an active service. Such is life!

Let’s go all in

Because my family is running on a PLDT Home Fiber connection, I discovered it to be quite the hack to get all my billing in one place with the Fiber Unli All plans. Rather than asking families to stack another subscription onto their already towering monthly pile, they are offering a way to consolidate everything into one plan. It can also be more cost-effective, and it saves on the digital clutter.

The concept of PLDT Home Fiber Unli All is straightforward: it brings together unlimited fiber, a Cignal TV subscription, unlimited landline and mobile calls, and mobile data powered by Smart, along with access to the streaming platform HBO Max.

Article continues after this advertisement

By consolidating these disparate utilities into a single subscription, I am effectively deleting half a dozen micro-tasks from my checklist. As a household, my spouse and I work remotely most of the time and the kids are balancing hybrid school and extracurriculars: Marie Kondo-ing my home network is a massive operational victory.

Technology should exist to serve our lives, not to turn us into part-time system administrators for our own living rooms Isn’t that the point? We should be living our lives while technology quietly takes care of the rest.