In relation to family time, studies vary in their findings. In Europe, for example, the work of Sonia Livingstone documents a trend toward privatized solo use of computer technologies among children consistent with living together and spending time part. She notes the advancing disappearance of family televisions and computers with the growth of individually used devices in the personal space of bedrooms.29 Others disagree, suggesting that ICTs “have become the glue that binds some families together” through interaction between parents and children around the computer screen.
While much has been made of the decline in family time, in fact, the majority of families still spend considerable time together watching television, having family meals, and visiting friends and family. Almost all American adults who live with a partner or a child have dinner with members of their household at least a few times per week, and more than half do so on daily basis.30 Moreover, parents, siblings, and other family members use media together in the context of home and family life. Over one-third of all parents say they play computer and video games, and most of these parents report playing video games with their children and that this brings their families closer together. Gaming and television watching (using digital video recording devices) are the most pervasive shared family activities.31 And, according to the Pew “Networked Families” survey, nearly 90 percent of American parents say they have gone online with their children. More than half of married mothers and onethird of married fathers go online “often” with their children.
However, young people’s experiences of intimate family time may well difer from that of the parents they are sharing it with. What mobile devices and social media have made possible to an unprecedented extent is for young people to express private lives within family time. Especially for teenagers or young adults, maintaining peer networks outside the home and family plays a vital role in the development of their sense of independence and autonomy. Mobile phones are integral to these practices and, arguably, they have changed the power dynamics of parental and peer group interaction for the adolescent. Indeed, these technologies give young people more control over their own time.
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