October 20, 2008 by Matt Thomas
When the internet first started to establish itself as a force to reckoned with in mainstream culture a number of social commentators decried it as the beginning of the end for families and community, fearing that social ties would be eroded by the culture of staying in and logging on. However, according to a study conducted by the Pew Internet Group, it would appear that those naysayers were wrong. Technology and the internet is actually helping to maintain social connections within society.
The study showed that often internet use was, in itself, a social activity, with 51 per cent of parents claiming to browse the internet with their children. Mobile phones are also a big part of modern ways of socialising with 42 per cent of parents using them to contact their children daily. Sites like Facebook and MySpace have also helped facilitate real world interaction as well as providing an easy way to keep in touch.
The study does concede that, in the age of the internet, the shared experience of gathering round the TV’s days are numbered. However, it maintains that communal home-entertainment activities are not dead, citing the 52% of net users (who live with a spouse or have children) who browse the internet with someone else many times a week.
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