We could blame Ms. Coffey's husband, Ben Berkowitz, 39, a vice president for digital at WNBC in New York, for turning the family's home into a techie wonderland. Along with that Echo, the family has Google Home, digital home security, a lock with keyless entry, and a Nest thermostat that insists on keeping the internal temperature at a crisp 62 degrees even when people are home. Ms. Coffey has so many apps on her phone monitoring her home that she has lost track of all the things they do. "I appreciate his efforts to computerize our house," she said of Mr. Berkowitz. "I just wish I could turn on a light without having to ask my phone to do it."