All good points. I would add that democracy in the workplace, which affects most people's day to day lives far more than that of the government, has been decreasing for decades, with the decline of unions and skyrocketing of wealth inequality.
I have an echo dot hooked up to my living room sound system which allows me to use my phone to play music wirelessly over bluetooth and Spotify connect. My TV also has a terrible sound board so instead of plugging an aux cable directly into the TV, I connect my Apple TV to the dot over bluetooth, which has much better sound quality. It's a big convenience over switching the aux cord between the various devices.