Online and Mobile Family Connections

Families stay in touch, with and without wires.
Nearly nine out of 10 married-with-children households surveyed owned multiple mobile phones, and nearly one-half owned three or more. Two-thirds of such households had broadband at home. The national average for all households is 52%.

Many of the families surveyed used their mobile phones to keep in touch: 70% of couples in which both partners owned a mobile phone contacted each other daily to say hello or chat, and 42% of parents contacted their child/children every day by mobile phone.

“Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around mobile phones and the internet,” said Tracy Kennedy, author of the report, in a statement.

One in five babies has Social Network Profile

Parents in the UK are increasingly using mobile phones and the internet to both announce and give their babies an online presence in the world, according to research carried out by Orange.

Orange discovered that one in five new parents sent a camera-phone image of their newborn baby to friends and family within 10 minutes of it being born. Meanwhile, up to half took pictures of their babies within an hour. The survey questionned 1,000 new and expectant parents.