SmartUp Fact Sheet: The Hidden Labour of Digitalization at Home

Digital technologies are increasingly integrated into our homes, reshaping how we manage work, care, and family life. While smart devices promise convenience, they also introduce a new form of invisible labor: digital housekeeping. This emerging type of domestic work—such as managing devices, apps, and data—often goes unnoticed, yet it consumes time and mental energy. As the home remains the central space for unpaid work and leisure, it is vital to recognize the hidden costs of digitalization. Raising awareness of this labor is essential for understanding its impact on everyday life and promoting fairer digital futures. This Fact Sheet is part of the SMARTUP Project: Smart(ening up the modern) home – Redesigning power dynamics through domestic space digitalisation. The German, Czech, and Polish consortiums for this CHANSE project are funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research [grant number: 01UX2209], the Czech Academy of Sciences [grant number: 796], and the National Science Centre in Poland [grant number: 2021/03/Y/HS6/00250], respectively.