Connecting Families

With Skype, mobile telephony and other innovations in communication transforming the way families keep in touch with each other, this study analyzes how connections between families and couples are evolving in today s evolving technological context.

New technologies are radically changing the way that families connect with one another: we can text our teenagers from work, eat dinner with far-away parents via video link, and instantly upload and share photos after a family day out. Whether we are bridging time or distance, and whether we are enhancing our closest relationships or strengthening the bonds of extended family, as computer technologies alter the communication landscape, they in turn are changing the way we conduct and experience family life.

This state of the art volume explores the impact of new communication systems on how families interact how they share their lives and routines, engage in social touch, and negotiate being together or being apart by considering a range of different family relationships that shape the nature of communication. Composed of three sections, the first looks at what is often the core of a 'family', the couple, to understand the impact of technology on couple relationships, communication, and feelings of closeness. The second section studies immediate families that have expanded beyond just the individual or couple to include children. Here, the emphasis is on connection for communication, coordination, and play. The third section moves beyond the immediate family to explore connections between extended, distributed family members. This includes connections between adult children and their parents, grandparents and grandchildren, and adult siblings. Here family members have grown older, moved away from 'home', and forged new families.

Researchers, designers and developers of new communication technologies will find this volume invaluable. Connecting Families: The Impact of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life brings together the most up-to-date studies to help in understanding how new communication technologies shape and are shaped by family life, and offers inspiration and guidance for design by makingclear what families need and value from technological systems.

Takes an in-depth look at how Skype, mobile technologies, and other innovations in communication are impacting family life Explores many different family relationships, including those between intimate partners, immediate family members, and grandparents and grandchildren Makes clear what families need and value from communication systems, offering inspiration and guidance to inventors and developers of new technologies

Inhalt

Connecting Families: An Introduction.- Section 1: Couples.- Designing for Collocated Couples.- Shared Living, Experiences, and Intimacy over Video Chat in Long Distance Relationships.- Section 2: Immediate Families and Children.- Intra-Family Messaging with Family Circles.- Enriching Virtual Visitation in Divorced Families.- Kids & Video: Playing with Friends at a Distance.- Section 3: The Extended, Distributed Family.- Connecting Families Across Time Zones.- Inter-Family Messaging with Domestic Media Spaces.- Reading, Laughing, and Connecting with Young Children.- Connecting Grandparents and Grandchildren.- Index.