If you’ve never found yourself hanging around the horned-rim glasses wearing literary fans or the all in black art crowd, you may not be familiar with the word “meta” and it’s many uses. Its origin story, like many others, takes place in ancient greek mythology. Meta was the first wife of the Athenian king, Aegeus. The word itself, Meta, is derived from μετά, meta, meaning “beyond” or “after”. Meta was the equivalent to the Latin “post-” or “ad-”. However, the contemporary version of Meta is not very old; meta appeared for the first time in 1988. Despite its age, Meta, has many definitions, all of which make it an uncanny name for the future of technology… or rather, of all things.

In a phenomenon being called “Smart Home Abuse”, smart home devices and appliances are being used by malicious exes to mentally and emotionally abuse their ex partners.