A national survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that the Internet and cell phones have become central to modern family life. Rather than hurt families, Pew said, new technologies allow new forms of connectivity. Cell phones allow family members to keep track of each other, and the Internet leads to shared discoveries.
 Once thought to be a distraction, the Internet and cell phones are now central components of modern family life. So says a new national survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.Specifically, Pew discovered households with a married couple and minor children are more likely than other households to have cell phones and use the Internet. What’s more, Pew reports positive impacts from the high rates of technology ownership in nuclear families.”Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the Internet,” said Tracy Kennedy, author of a new report about the survey called Networked Families. “Family members touch base with each other frequently with their cell phones, and they use those phones to coordinate family life on the fly during their busy lives.”
Staying in Constant Contact Among the most telling stats, couples in which both partners own a cell phone contact each other daily to say hello or chat, while only 54 percent of couples who have one or no cell phones do this at least once a day.Sixty-four percent of couples in which both partners own a cell phone contact each other daily to coordinate their schedules, and 42 percent of parents contact their children every day using a cell phone. That makes cell phones the most popular communications tool between parents and children.”A lot of families treat the Internet as a place for shared experiences,” Kennedy said. “They don’t just withdraw from the family to their own computer for private screen time. They often say, ‘Hey — look at this!’ to others in the household.”Pew’s survey respondents see much upside and little downside in the way new technologies are impacting the quality of communications with others. Twenty-five percent of Pew respondents said their family is closer today than when they were growing up — thanks to the Internet and cell phones. By contrast, only 11 percent said their families weren’t as close and 60 percent said the technologies made no difference. The Child-Safety Issue Time Deal, a senior analyst at Pike & Fischer, remembers when he was a kid. He’d disappear on his bike for most of Saturday, he said, and maybe check in with his parents for lunch and dinner. The times have changed — and so have safety concerns. |
