Abstract
A great deal of previous research has examined the profound influence of digital communications technology (e.g., texting, videoconferencing, social media usage) on family life. However, few inquiries have explored the contours of technologically assisted communication using qualitative data collected from various family members. Our study breaks new ground by using interview data collected from a split sample of parents and their emerging adult children (interviewed separately) to investigate intergenerational accounts of technologically assisted family communication. Using insights from various theoretical perspectives, we analyze thirty in-depth interviews with middle-aged parents (ages 39–62) and their corresponding emerging adult children (ages 18–29) who use technology as a significant means of communicating with one another. Our analyses reveal two overarching patterns. Discordant accounts reflect disparate intergenerational views of technologically assisted family communication. By contrast, concordant accounts provide evidence of shared intergenerational reflections on technology’s role in family life. These patterns are explained by family life complexities, technology use experiences, and intergenerational norms of communication. Our study confirms that communication technology plays a multifarious role in family life across generational lines. Implications of these findings and promising avenues for future research are discussed.
Highlights
Communication technology has revolutionized interpersonal relationships and, in particular, family life and parent-child relations in recent years
Our research focuses on how parents and their emerging adult children, as two respective groups, reflect on and recount their experiences with technologically assisted family communication
Our reporting of results begins with an analysis of the points of divergence exhibited between parents and their emerging adult children concerning technologically assisted communication
Summary
Communication technology has revolutionized interpersonal relationships and, in particular, family life and parent-child relations in recent years (see, e.g., Bruess 2015; Clark 2013; Gee et al 2018; Lee and Webb 2015; Lemish et al 2017; Webb and Lee 2011; Webb 2015; Webb et al 2015; Wright and Webb 2011 for reviews, syntheses, and original research). Within American households, what has come to be called technologically assisted family communication (Webb et al 2015) is clearly here to stay. Assisted family communication (e.g., texting, videoconferencing, social media usage) has been shown to have a host of advantages and disadvantages for parents and children, whether or not they live in the same household (see Webb et al 2015). To name but a few challenges, parenting conducted by “media moms” and “digital dads” can invite children’s resistance to managing their screen time and monitoring their social media presence (Uhls 2015; see Sharabi et al 2015; Tikkanen et al 2015). Technology has certainly created new anxieties for today’s parents, who commonly express concern about their children’s exposure to nefarious online influences (Sharabi et al 2015; Tikkanen et al 2015). Full-time caregivers of young children need not be as isolated as they once were, as evidenced by the cultural prominence of “mommy
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