Week 2 #3 Post

 Networked Life: Networked Families 

I was really fascinated by the Networked Life chapters this week. I chose to read Chapter 6: Networked Families. This was interesting to me because this has been in the news a lot lately with recent events. (I don't want this post to become political, and if you wish to comment, please be kind and respectful to others.) It was so interesting to see the different statistics on families and how they have evolved through the years and with the rise of technology. There are a lot of factors that have effected the evolution of the "family". This is stated in the book, "Although the trend to networked families began before the internet and mobile phone, the intrinsically personal nature of these technologies has encouraged the transmutation of households into networks. Where calls to wired (landline) home phones and visits to homes often were contacts with the entire household, new ICTs (information and communication technologies) foster individual person-to-person contact. yet, this only tells part of the story, for in the network operating system, there are social and cultural changes in addition to technological changes. They include trends toward personal car ownership (rather than the on-for-all family car), women working outside of their homes, shifting family composition (smaller, with multiple marriages and parentage), and the substitution of paid services for the work formerly done by homemakers - such as lower-cost fast food and "family restaurants." 

The book goes on to give statistics for such things as women having fewer children, less children in the home, higher divorce rates, marriages at older ages, and smaller households. There are also charts and statistics for how roles in the home have changed. More women are becoming employed and more men are doing work around the home.  Our world and social norms are changing and evolving. My husband and I have four kids and I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. However, I also like to work. Because of technology, I was able to find an online job to do that was flexible and worked with my family. I am able to be home with my kids, but also work. It has been the perfect balance for our family. Every family is different and every individual is different. I feel that technology has given us more opportunities to choose. 

As people's routines have changed, so have the technologies people use to stay in contact and communicate with work peers, friends, and family. They go on to talk about how many teenagers and even kids as young as 7 are getting mobile phones from their parents to stay in contact. There can be many benefits to this. However, there are also a lot of concerns that come with giving children access to this type of technology. Spouses also use technology to stay in contact throughout the day, even while at work. It is crazy to think about how connected we are now, but only a few short years ago, we weren't! 

I remember when I was growing up my mom loved to take us on "adventures". We would load up in the suburban and we would drive around and explore new places. We lived out in the country near the mountains. I remember getting stuck or lost on a fairly regular basis. There was no one to call. Cell phones weren't accessible to families yet. So, we dug ourselves out and had quite the story to tell my dad when he came home from work that night. I think we take the technology we have for granted. I shoot off a text to my husband to see how his day is going, vent about a problem I'm having, or even just to pick up the Target Order on his way home (another thing that only came about because of the evolution of technology). Staying connected with our families is important. We moved across the country from our families about ten years ago. Everyone lives out West. Our kids only get to see their grandparents in person about once a year. However, cell phones and Facetime have really changed how we can stay connected. I feel like my kids know their grandparents and have a relationship with them even though they live on the other side of the country. 

I feel like I could make this blog post really long sharing all the statistics I read this week, but I'll stop here for now. I do want to pose a few questions to anyone who made it this far:

What do you think about networked families? Positives? Negatives? How big of a role has technology played on the evolution of the family? What comes next?