Pretty interesting research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project on Technology in our lives and touched on what the effect has been on the family itself.....
?Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the internet,? said Tracy Kennedy, author of the ?Networked Families? report. ?A lot of families treat the internet as a place for shared experiences. They don?t just withdraw from the family to their own computer for private screen time. They often say, ?Hey ? look at this!? to others in the household.
Overall, respondents in this survey see much upside and little downside in the way new technologies have affected the quality of their communications with others.
When asked if the internet and cell phones had made family life different for their current family compared with the family in which they had grown up, 25% said their family today is closer than their family when they were growing up, 11% said their family today is not as close as families in the past, and 60% said that new technologies have not made their family any more or less close than their family in the past."
Now how do we integrate our clients marketing message into this new marketing arena? Are the properties we represent part of the "network" of everyday life or are we intrusive?