Summary- With the global proliferation of increasingly advanced computers， communications and other electronics equipment， information equipment has grown into a major trend in human society. It is affecting not only companies but households， particularly family relationships， in a major way. In this paper， we look at the modern family from the viewpoint of how the introduction of information equipment is changing the family， already under strain from changing eating and living patterns.
- Even as disparate lifestyles are reducing opportunities for communication within the family， information equipment such as answering machines， beepers， and personal computer communications are serving effectively as tools for family members to communicate with each other. Families are building networks over telephone lines to link them together despite not actually being in physical contact.
- In families with two income earners， couples are transcending the conventional sex-based division of household chores and child-raising by means of high-tech home appliances and a family information network. Information equipment not only serves as a communication tool within the family， but also affects the form of the family itself.
- In other cases， however， the introduction of information equipment in households has hurt the family. As information equipment erases the boundary between household and workplace， it usurps time that husbands and wives would otherwise spend communicating; or， it may destroy an already ailing marriage if the husband uses the information equipment at work to communicate with others while disregarding his family. Thus information equipment may also serve to pull the family apart.
- In conducing case studies of how family relationships are affected by the flood of information equipment into households， we found that information equipment can have three function:(1) it can bring together families that are physically scattered; (2) bolster the independence of family members through an intra-family network; and (3) restructure the family's sex-based division of labor through the use of information equipment such as hi-tech household appliances， home security systems， and intelligent dishwashers， and as a result sweep away the conventional image of the family. The critical point is that depending on how it is used， information equipment may work to pull the family apart.
|
