Due to the advancements of technology, it has allowed families who cannot be physically together to stay in contact and speak with each other daily. The article, “Keeping Together Long-Distance Families: Technology as a Social Actor,” starts off with speaking about how when Romania joined the EU it allowed for parents to work abroad while their child stayed with a trusted adult. So, more families began to be connected mostly through technology while a parent worked abroad. The article emphasizes how family members do not have to be in person to be a family.
Mădălina Ionescu states, “children, parents and grandparents feel less separated due to digital connectivity and to their communication devices – smart phone, laptop, tablet, software, applications etc. (54)” For example, with things like skype and zoom, a mom and her family could still have dinner together if they wanted to every day. The author emphasizes how these tools of communication have become social factors because of the positive experience for families which make them continuously utilize them. During this time in Romania there was even a ‘La mamma ti vuole bene’ project which focused on making sure children, who were left behind, still had good connections with their parents. This is similar to how apps like WhatsApp have taken the internet by the storm, as it’s a free app that allows people to call and message from different countries. When people are studying abroad, it seems to be one of the main sources of contact and allows people to stay in connection. It is strikingly different from how life was decades ago, because before these apps people who studied abroad spoke occasionally with their families due to the international cost. Now, with just WIFI and internet access people could speak to their family members everyday while abroad if they wanted to.
One of the more surprising factors of the article was the, “World Bank’s Development Report 2016 emphasizes how mobile phones are more used and spread than clean water.” It’s upsetting that technology can be deemed more important than clean water. Technology is great and adds so much to human lives, but humans don’t need it to survive. So, it’s crazy how something that humans need to survive is less available to individuals.
Lastly, this article showed the positivity of families staying connected through technology however, it is almost saddening that this is how life is nowadays. Yes, it’s amazing that a mom can still stay connected with her daughter while she is abroad, but if this becomes a trend, I wonder about the psychological effects this can have on a child. If their relationship is always through a screen, won’t it be uncomfortable when they are in person together? Overtime it can become easier to have a relationship over a screen than in person if that’s how they comminated for years. So, it would be interesting to see the long-term effects this can have on parents and the children.
I really liked your analysis of this article and I also wonder about the long-term effects of this technology. It is great that these new platforms and apps how allowed families living in different areas of the world to connect but for immediate families in particular, is this form of communication becoming too normalized. I think it can also be connected to how we rely on text messaging apps like WhatsApp rather than talking on the phone or Facetiming one another, which are sometimes better forms of communication in genuinely connecting and catching up with people. Is new technology allowing us to connect online hurting our in-person connections?
I think keeping in touch with family members is always important and if the relationship can’t be in person, technology is certainly help people feel more connected and in touch. It reminds me of times before we had phones and I think people definitely enjoy the quick communication they bring unlike when writing letters were the only option. The issue of how mobile phones are more widespread than clean water is more so an obvious issue with the inaccessibility of clean water than it is praise to the mobile phones. It seems like an entirely different issue and arguably a more problematic one.
Although it is not surprising that mobile phones and things like FaceTime and Skype enable people to feel as though they are with their family. It is great that this is an option today, but I also know that for me, FaceTiming someone does not feel nearly as similar as just being in the same room as them. Obviously, in the case of separate families, it is amazing to have this option, but in the case of friends and other people who don’t HAVE to be separated from each other, I think this option can sometimes replace face-to-face interactions that can be happening. It is insane and honestly a little gross that phones are spread more than clean water. Constant communication has become addictive, and because they benefit from the money we continuously give them, the urgency to make more and more persists. This urgency should be the same with clean water, but it is often forgotten that its a luxury not all are lucky enough to just have.
I love the opportunity for connection overseas that WhatsApp brings to the table. I stay in touch with my host family from Jordan this summer through WhatsApp, and I am grateful for the features it provides of free calling and texting because otherwise, I would be limited to Instagram or Snapchat, which does not feel as authentic to me as staying connected through call and text features, as I also use with my parents, representing closeness to me. I am feeling shocked to read the statement about how phones are more widespread and accessible than clean water, so the article does put necessities in perspective. However, it is amazing what technology can do to link long-distance families to maintain their intimate family relationships and update each other about their evolving lives.