Four Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism
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Anabel Quan-Haase
Abstract
This chapter examines the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in family life from the perspective of older adults, and whether ICT use is helping to maintain and strengthen social ties within and across generations. Drawing on networked individualism as a conceptual and analytical model, it investigates social and network transitions affecting families and communities since the 1990s. In-depth interviews conducted in 2013–2014 with older adults from East York, Toronto, show that most of them rely more on email and less on social media and video chat. Most importantly, they still prefer spending time in person. The chapter also considers how the so-called Triple Revolution in how society operates has created opportunities for a transition to networked individualism that affects family interactions. Finally, it discusses three areas where ICTs have been integrated into family life: practices of connectivity, maintaining family ties near and far, and feelings of connectedness.
Abstract
This chapter examines the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in family life from the perspective of older adults, and whether ICT use is helping to maintain and strengthen social ties within and across generations. Drawing on networked individualism as a conceptual and analytical model, it investigates social and network transitions affecting families and communities since the 1990s. In-depth interviews conducted in 2013–2014 with older adults from East York, Toronto, show that most of them rely more on email and less on social media and video chat. Most importantly, they still prefer spending time in person. The chapter also considers how the so-called Triple Revolution in how society operates has created opportunities for a transition to networked individualism that affects family interactions. Finally, it discusses three areas where ICTs have been integrated into family life: practices of connectivity, maintaining family ties near and far, and feelings of connectedness.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- The family has become a network xv
- Connecting families? An introduction 1
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Theoretical and methodological approaches
- Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life 21
- Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor network theory and strong structuration theory 41
- Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism 59
- Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? 81
- The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies 97
- Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life 113
- From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research 133
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Empirical approaches
- Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of ‘digital solidarity’ 159
- Careful families and care as ‘kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia 181
- Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling 201
- Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents 219
- ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations 237
- Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan 255
- Digital connections and family practices 273
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- The family has become a network xv
- Connecting families? An introduction 1
-
Theoretical and methodological approaches
- Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life 21
- Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor network theory and strong structuration theory 41
- Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism 59
- Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? 81
- The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies 97
- Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life 113
- From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research 133
-
Empirical approaches
- Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of ‘digital solidarity’ 159
- Careful families and care as ‘kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia 181
- Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling 201
- Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents 219
- ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations 237
- Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan 255
- Digital connections and family practices 273
- Index 295
