1. Technology & Family
Relationships
Matt Brady

2. Why it is Important?
 It is important to understand how and why technology is able to do both bring
families together and drive them apart
 What is it about technology that makes it so influential on our family
relationships?
 The first relationships we develop as people are with our families and now those
relationships are being threatened by the increased use and availability of
technology.
 In today’s day and age almost every one has technology at their disposal. This
can lead to families being together even when they’re apart or can lead to
families being apart even when they’re together.

3. Increased Number of Users
 One reason technology has had such an impact on the way we interact with our
family is due to the substantial amount of increased users in today’s world
 Approximately 95% of people from ages 6-19 now have access to internet.
 The US. Census Bureau have been keeping track of the increased number of
internet and technology users
 The overall world internet population has doubled in the last 5 years. From 1.15
billion to now 2.27 billion people.
 58% of smartphone owners have admitted to not being able to go 1 hour
without checking their phones.

4. Improved Communication
 Technology has been able to and helped families better communicate with
each other.
 It connects long-lost relatives and enables them to reconnect
 Communication has become a quicker act and a message can be sent and received
at the same time
 It can now be synchronous(instant messaging) occurring instantaneously
 Rather than occurring asynchronous(sending a letter)
 Family communication has become more efficient through technology.
 They are able to communicate through Facebook and other SNS

5. No Geographical Boundaries
 It seems that in our society today that people are becoming more mobile than
before
 People are moving more often now than they used to because of job opportunities and
some of these jobs require you to frequently travel or move to conduct business
 The frequent travelling of family members used to cause a loss of
communication due to the long distance relationship.
 Long distance relationships occur when communication is restricted because of
geographic parameters and the people involved in the relationship expect a continued
close connection.
 With new technology people are able to communicate with their families as if
they weren’t separated by hundreds of miles.

6. No Geographical Boundaries
 Cell phones allow families to call or text each other sending and receiving them
instantaneously
 Skype is a way for people to video call one another so it is like you are talking face-
to-face as if you were actually in the same room as the person you were
conversing with
 It is easy to lose contact with people after they
move but technology has helped us stay
connected with those we are close with no
matter the distance

7. Creates isolation
 Although technology is good for helping us stay connected and communicating
with people it has its disadvantages as well.
 Technology causes us to isolate ourselves
 Through the use of computers and smart phones we block ourselves out from the real
world and get stuck in the virtual one.
 Kids are starting to spend more and more time on the Internet and less with
their families and friends.
 It is estimated that kids from the ages of 8-18 spend somewhere from 50-70 hours on
technology a week. That would be over 7 hours a day.
 With the inventions of smartphones and websites like Twitter and Facebook kids
are becoming more and more isolated from their families.

8. Isolation
 Rather than going out with their family teens are now more inclined to want to
stay inside and play video games or be on their computer.
 In a recent study teens have been found to interact
or communicate with their friends and family more
on their phones than face-to-face
 54% of teens reported that they’d rather communicate
through text or their phones than have a face-to-face
conversation.
 This leads to teens not actually interacting or communicating
with their families and therefore isolating themselves from the family

9. Relationships Suffer
 Technology has done great things for the world of communication, but one negative thing
it has done is make conversations and relationships more impersonal.
 Relationships and conversations with your family should always be personal its your
family, but now with technologies people are treating those relationships as if they were
just another friendship; sending one work text messages to each other.
 Although computers and technology seem to come second nature to teens most of it is
still rarely new and parents aren’t sure how to deal with technology in our lives
 This puts strain on relationships because parents try to connect with their kids, but they aren’t sure
how to do it in this new technological age.
 It also does not help that teens become impatient with their parents when they don’t know how to
use technology and start up on websites like Facebook where teens felt free from there parents.

10. Relationships Suffer
 Some research has shown that parents are trying to take action against the
technology their children use
 Through means of limiting the amount of time they were allowed to use it and
also by screening what their kids were doing online.
 This seems to lead to more disconnect from parents to children because the
kids start to feel like they have no freedom in the real and virtual world
which leads to more fights and isolation from the family
 Another study has shown that more and more parents are relying on
technology in order to raise their kids than in the past
 Kids are being brought up and raised by television and computers.

11. Now vs. Then
 The dynamics of family relationships have changed substantially from the past
before technology and how it is today.
 Before technology families used to spend much more time together talking to
each other and enjoying a nice family dinner
 Today it seems as though families don’t have enough time for each other
whether they are busy at work or too busy preoccupying themselves with
technology
 Even when families do find “family time” for each other most of the time they are
physically together, but emotionally and mentally they are not.
 Most teens have portable technologies at their disposal at any time in the day and even
parents have those technologies now too so most family time is a group of people
getting together so they can ignore each other for technology

12. Now vs. Then
 Before technology became prevalent in society families would like to eat
together and spend time with one another.
 Sundays were days in the week that the family stayed in and spent the day
together. Now if you ask parents or children what Sundays mean to
them, most say it is just another day or the day before they have to get back
to work.

13. Now vs. Then
 Kids were surveyed and it was revealed that the majority of them felt that
family time was like some sort of chore
 Some teens also feel like they are being punished when they are forced to spend
time with their family.
 Some parents have become so concerned with how their family interactions
have fallen off they have taken to the internet to look up how a normal
family functions.

14. What’s Been Studied
 As technology has become more and more popular in our society more
research and studies have been done on it
 Studies have been done on how technology helps long distance
relationships
 How it affects relationships in general
 The impacts that technology has had on our society

15. What Has Yet To be Studied
 There is still a lot in the area of technology that has yet to be studied
 There has yet to be direct studies that show a relationship between family
time and technology.
 There have also not been studies that show the emotional toll that the
affects of technology have on people