Undermining widely held views about the divisive effects of the internet and cell phones, a new study claims that the use of modern communications devices is bringing families closer together by effectively turning them into online social networks.
The Pew Internet Report, which was released Sunday, surveyed 2,252 traditional "nuclear families" and found that families compensated for the increased stress of modern life by using cell phone calls, emails, and text messages to stay in touch.
The poll found that 60 percent of adults said that the new technologies did not affect the closeness of their family, while 25 per cent said cellphones and online communication made their families closer and 11 per cent said that the technology had a negative effect.
Some 53 per cent said that new technologies helped them stay in touch with distant relatives, while 47 per cent said it improved their interactions with those they lived with. Another 47 per cent said there was no effect, and 2 per cent said there had been a decrease in quality.
"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 of the University of Toronto who helped to write the Networked Families report.
The study also outlined the growing use of "love taps" - in which family members contact each other briefly throughout the day. Forty-two per cent of parents with children ages 7 to 17 call them once a day or more on a cellphone, 35 per cent keep in touch on a landline and 7 per cent communicate by text, according to the poll.
It said both spouses and at least one child go online in 65 per cent of married-with-children households. Fifty-eight per cent of married-with-children households contain two or more desktop or laptop computers.
The study also found that 51 per cent of parents said they browsed the web with their children and that mobile phones were found in 89 per cent of nuclear families.
The new technology came at the expense of the old technology of television with 25 per cent saying they now spend less time watching television and only 58 per cent ofÂ
18-29 year olds saying they watched TV every day.
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