Artefact 4: Study of Family Home

Evaluation:

Upon completing my ethnographic studies of a domestic space and collecting data from a questionnaire I created regarding the social effects technology has I decided to study a family environment to get a more coherent and rangeful set of data. I created small sketches of a domestic family environment to capture social interaction and technology.

I found that in a family environment wireless technologies were used more, as the living room space was the area that the majority of the family stayed. Wireless technologies usually used in this space were mobiles, laptops and games consoles. This wireless technology available has made it possible for a number of individuals to engage collectively rather than separately.

I found that my ethnographic study showed they relied heavily on mobile communication to enable the family to integrate, it seemed that every member had a relationship with their mobile phone and felt disconnected and lost without one. I feel this wireless communication is penetrating our homes and fragmenting leisure time in families due to business demands and in a way nobody is actually "switching-off. Even though mobile communication is vastly increasing efficiency in the working and family environment I think this is adding more "stress" on individuals because of this efficiency.

I've concluded that technology is affecting the family environment. I also gave each member of the family a questionnaire to complete and I found that the parents of the family definitely felt technology was affecting family leisure time, they felt social networking sites distracted the children and when asked if they would sign up to one they said no. However the children of the family felt that the parent’s relationships with their mobile phones and business/work related affairs affected the family on a larger scale.