Browsing by Author "Kovala, Antti"

Goals. The goal of the study was to investigate Finnish adults' experiences on using information and communication technology (ICT) to help with housework. This study focuses on everyday life's technologization, and the value and meaning of housework. The aim of the study is also to redefine the technology associated to households and its effects on consumers. As the amount and sophistication of technology available to consumers has evolved greatly in the past few years, the study tries to explain how and why households use technological artefacts in the aid of housework. Methods. The study was executed in the summer of 2017 as a e-questionnaire. The questionnaire was answered by 25 people ranging between 22-55 years of which 14 were men and 11 women. Questionnaire consisted of open-ended and multiple choice questions. The answers to the closed questions were tabulated and the answers to the open-ended questions were processed using content analysis. Results and conclusions. The most used applications of information and communication technology were social media, search engines and applications on smart devices. The response to ICT in the aid of housework was generally positive. The most aid was seen to be needed on time consuming, intermittent and skilfully challenging housework, such as cooking and home improvement projects. The most used application of ICT was information gathering through search engines. The most used applications of ICT do not directly correlate with the most used applications used to help housework. The greatest challenges in using ICT were reliability and the difficulty of use.