Review and Thoughts of Chapter 6: Networked Families

Below is a quick review of Chapter 6: Networked Families in the book "Networked: The New Social Gathering System" by Lee Raine and Barry Wellman.

Today's families have changed; they are more varied. The "nuclear family" is far from the norm. Because of these changes and the Triple Revolution, families are using ICTs (information and communication technologies) to stay connected. Staying connected can include leisure (watching videos, playing video games together) to organizing a full family schedule (work, school, extracurriculars, etc.) and everything in between.

A couple of lines from the chapter that sums up what I read is, "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, the new ICTs...foster individual person-to-person contact." (Ranie & Wellman 2012)

Households no longer work as a singular unit; there is more emphasis on the individual. The authors also explain how an increase in personal car ownership and an increase in women working outside the home have encouraged this shift to networked families. Though families have less time physically together, they can stay connected continuously through ICTs. The authors use data to support their claim that ICTs keep families more connected than ever before.

Some thoughts I had while reading this chapter:

I remember before I had a cellphone, I would have to call my parents using a house phone when I made it to where I was supposed to be, like a friend's house. And if I spent the night at a friend's house, I would have to call to check in at night. I wonder what kids do now, do their parents text them randomly to ask where they are or if all is good? Or do the kids still have to initiate that check-in?

We were a busy family! My parents divorced when I was young, and I lived primarily with my father, step-mom, step-sister, and half brother. However, I am one of the lucky few whose step-mom and mom get along famously! (Like seriously, they still talk even though all the kids have grown up.) So, my half-sister is as much a part of my dad's side of the family as my step-sister and half-brother is to my mom's. That makes 3 kids with 2 mothers in different households coordinating (my dad did not do much to help with the household stuff). I played volleyball, soccer, ran track, and was a part of various school clubs; my half-sister was a cheerleader; my step-sister played soccer and ran track. Each of us dabbled in different types of dance when we were younger. My little brother played t-ball and was about 10 years younger than me, so we did not overlap in the house for too long, I am not sure what his schedule was like after I moved to college. On top of all of these extracurricular activities, all three of us girls had pretty busy social lives, sleepovers, study groups, mall trips, you name it. There seriously had to be some magic happening to get us to all of the places we needed to be (though we were late embarrassingly often). I asked my Meme (mom's mom) how she did all this stuff with her kids before cell phones, she said that the kids "just didn't do as much stuff." So becoming more of a networked family allowed my siblings and me to have a more diverse set of extracurricular activities and a MUCH busier schedule.

References:

Rainie, L., & Wellman, B. (2014). Networked: the new social operating system.