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cutting into family time As time online has risen, fewer hours are spent together Jun 19, 2009 If you’ve noticed that you’re spending less time together as a family since your husband joined a fantasy football league and your daughter became addicted to Facebook, you’re not alone. A new study from the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication finds that the percentage of people who say they spend less time with household members since being connected to the internet at home has gone from 11 percent in 2006 to 28 percent in 2008. Reports of feeling ignored by other family members using the internet soared by 40 percent, and the amount of family time spent per household went from 26 hours to just under 18. Women seem to be feeling the most frustration over this. Nearly half say they are sometimes or often ignored due to the internet, compared to 39 percent of men. Interestingly, researchers did not find the same effect in play between friends, although they did find that parents think their kids are spending too much time online. Michael Gilbert, senior fellow at the center and author of “The Disposable Male,” talks to Media Life about what the internet means to families, why going online isn’t hurting our friendships just yet, and why the web has had a different effect than television. Were you surprised at the big rise in the percentage of those who said that they spend less time with household members since being connected to the internet at home? What prompted that spike? I wasn’t that surprised. The issue of where time that people are devoting to the internet is coming from has been a question that interested observers have been curious about. People think it comes from TV or wherever. But in ‘07 we reported that more than half of our correspondents said their online connections or social network friends were as important as offline connections. So we saw that, and then we kind of waited. Then we saw it confirmed again in ‘08. And of course this coincides with the explosion in social networks. And furthermore, it was confirmed by other aspects of our work, by which I mean increases in people feeling more ignored by those using the web, and a rising concern by parents about the amount of time kids are online. What did surprise us is that there’s no real reduction in face time with friends. And that’s because for most people they’re online at home, but they’re not mobile yet. So it’s at home where they’re on the computer and it’s at home where the effect is felt. Why aren't we seeing the same impact on friends and social networks as we are on family? Well, we’re looking at the impact of the computer at home. Our questions are to what’s going on in the house. As mobile gets more sophisticated, I think it will ultimately have an impact on friendships. That could come down the road. Family has suffered some erosion and it may not get much worse, but as people take the experience out of the house, I think we might start hearing reports that face-to-face time with friends is ultimately diminishing. Do you think we'll see further decreases the next few years in the amount of time spent socializing as a family because of the internet? Why or why not? You know, I’m not sure we will. I think when you have these dramatic drops in terms of social changes, it stabilizes in the second year. So I don’t think so. We may have a slow erosion, but I wouldn’t be surprised to even see it come back a bit. Did families see a similar impact on family time from other forms of media in the past, like TV or radio? Or is the web more of an isolated case? They have. For instance when TV first came on, it drew the family together in a way, and we had a collective experience. Then TV migrated to every room in the house. So suddenly you had this medium that brought us together keeping people in their own rooms. And now maybe with big screens and HD we’re back watching together. But a decade from now there will be big screen in everybody’s room. So these patterns change. But there is a difference. The difference is the internet demands an interactive experience, it’s not that easy to share being on the web. So that’s the distinction here, it’s not a family experience. Having said that, the internet and digital media are a boon for families. In the overall scheme of things, the capacity of keeping in touch and sharing pictures and such, it has a positive upside for families. But by the same token, technology has a shadow side and one is that it disrupts certain patterns and boundaries. It’s a wondrous thing, but we’ve got to be careful about what it’s doing to the family. Why did women report feeling more ignored by a family internet user than men? You know, I authored a book called “The Disposable Male,” and it focuses on gender issues and family issues. Many studies show that women just simply place more emphasis on relationships and communication, it’s a traditional pattern in almost every culture. They also have more household chores. And they also seem to have a better sense of balance about it, frankly. But lots of men report wives are caught up on sites too, so it’s going on with both genders, but it’s probably due to those kinds of factors. I’m a great believer in the notion that being “equal to” doesn’t mean “the same as.” There are profound distinctions in my eyes between the sexes. Why has the concern over kids' internet use grown so much? We don’t necessarily go into the why on that, but I can tell you that year in and year out it gets a few percent higher. It’s gone from one in 10 to almost one in three. We just see it all over the web in terms of complaints by parents. There’s just a steady concern, but why that’s happening I don’t know. Maybe it’s a more digital generation; kids now have had this from day one. But I see a lot of anecdotal references of real concern about this issue. Generally speaking, has the web had a positive or negative impact on family structure, or is it too soon to tell? I have no doubt that it’s positive. I think we have the responsibility to make sure our gizmos and gadgets, that they don’t rule us but we rule them. It’s a responsibility. These electronic advances make our lives easier, but also more complicated, but we have to appreciate the importance of our families, and we have to invest time and energy to keep them vibrant. Whether this means introducing curfews or agreeing not to go online on the weekends or something, ultimately it’s us who are responsible for it. But I think the web is a terrific asset for families who us it in a respectful way.
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