Tic & Société (Jul 2022)
Objets connectés : penser les enjeux des technologies connectées sous l’angle de la médiation infocommunicationnelle
Abstract
The evolution of connected objects since the 1990s shows that they are increasingly present in our daily lives. From the development of their technical infrastructures, known as the "Internet of Things", to their increasingly ubiquitous connection, technologies are now converging with artificial intelligence and big data towards an "Internet of Behavior", which is increasingly interfaced with bodies and whose challenge is now behavioral analysis. Particularly in the fields of computer science, medicine and marketing, a prolific scientific literature on the subject and its various sociotechnical issues presents these new digital objects as promises of innovation in a growing number of areas, including health, well-being, transportation, architecture (smart buildings), urbanism (smart cities), energy (smart grids), ecology and sports. However, the use of connected objects remains controversial. Contributions from the humanities and social sciences highlight socio-political and anthropological issues regarding the datafication of the world and the impacts on social relations. Although these new objects are profoundly modifying daily life through continuous immersion based on data and automation, anthropological mutations and legal issues remain largely underestimated and even less evaluated.