Internet Use Cuts Into Family Time
It might be too much work, TV, movies, or friends, but U.S. families are spending less time together.
As family time falls, there is a rise in Internet use and the growth of social networking sites, although a new study did not blame the sites.
The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California announced this week that 28% of Americans interviewed for the study have been spending more time away from their families. That’s practically triple the 11% polled in 2006.
Michael Gilbert from the center noted that people admitted to spending a lot more time on social sites Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, along with their friends who are on the sites.
Facebook’s users have increased to 200 million from 100 million last year.
In the mean time, people continue to be concerned about how much time teens are spending online. In 2000, the center noted that only 11% said that family members under 18 are on the Internet too much. By 2008 this number was 28%.
"Most people think of the Internet and (our) digital future as boundless, and I do too," Gilbert said to AP News. "It can’t be a good thing that families are spending less face-to-face time together. Ultimately it leads to less cohesive and less communicative families."
In the beginning of the decade, people spent about 26 hours every month with their families. By 2008, the number dropped to a mere 18 hours.
The new technologies have altered the way families communicate.
Cell phones let parents know where their children are, while the cell provides teens privacy, something they would not really have with landlines.
Television has become a part of dinnertime, and as there are normally more than one set around, kids and parents do not have to gather in the living room to watch it.
Gilbert noted that the Internet is so absorbing and requires a lot of attention that it really doesn’t upset family time in ways other technologies can.
"It’s not like television, where you can sit around with your family and watch," he said.
Mainly because they can buy Web-connected gadgets, families who make more money had a greater loss of family time than those with lower incomes. More women said they felt overlooked by a family member on the Internet than men did.
The center’s survey was a random census of 2,030 people from 12 and up and was carried out from April 9 to June 30, 2008.
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