Electronics in People's Bedrooms
Electronics near the bed (typically some tablet or a "smart" "phone") are considered normal now. It used to be limited to an alarm clock, if any (wristwatches with miniature lights were common in the 80s and 90s, there was also light on the bedside table).
Some of us grew into a generation of PDAs, but people would not put them near the pillow or "charging" at the corner of the room (old devices were not this hungry for power because when idle they could almost hibernate).
Today, many people suffer or experience a weak form of 'sleep' due the very presence of devices that emit signals (not limited to sounds) throughout the night. Research suggests that it causes chronic sleep and - by extension - physical and/or mental health problems.
Between early 2011 and December 2022 I worked in a company where staff was "on-call" and worked nights. So there was usually some digital device in the bedroom, and not just the landline. When I quit the company the devices were removed and relocated to another floor - that meant that in order to do any computing (even just checking the weather) one had to go to "the office". That made life simpler and better*. It also improved the prospect of privacy. The issue with computers - including "smart" "phones" - being versatile spying devices merits a different and separate article. It's only getting worse each year.
While it's hard to entirely deny the "pros" of having 'Net access' near the bed, there are also many "cons". Over the past few years I learned that in order to "start the day" (and leave the bed/bedroom) it helps to have something to look forward to elsewhere: if that means checking the weather, fine.
A lot of the same stuff can be said about computing devices in the kitchen (not kitchen "gadgets" that have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth). A kitchen can lose its "identity" or feel like something else if you attempt to do non-kitchen tasks while in it.
Modern technology not only blurred the gap between "functions" of rooms; popular culture sought to make it "hip" to eat while gardening (hygiene issue), use a phone for social control media while in transit/commuting (nausea), taking/placing calls while driving (loss of focus on a potentially deadly - as in fatal outcomes - road with fast-moving trucks), and attending/absorbing "notifications" while deep sleep is imperative. There's so much to be lost and so little to gain when we forget what it's like to be human and why humans learned (or evolved over time) to compartmentalise disparate activities.
I still know people who care a lot about their health (including diet and quality of sleep) and would refuse to focus on the road while driving, despite knowing the growing likelihood of death due to a lack of alertness. Sadly, many "modern" cars go out of their ways to distract the driver. It's about "engagement" (or perceived "productivity"), not safety. █
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* That includes deeper and more contiguous sleep; this year I sleep a lot more than in prior years. The mind feels fresher.