In Internet families, the day is “stretched out” to 43 hours

Specialists from Yahoo and OMD Research conducted a joint study on how families of the so-called generation 2.0 live. It turned out that they are very different from traditional families from the past. In almost all domestic issues, they act much more efficiently. For example, two thirds of the representatives of the new era use the Internet to search for goods, 64% use search sites daily, 62% share photos via the Web, 60% plan to travel here, and 61% get important medical information on the Internet. The Internet has become the main source of information on almost all life issues.

“Families 2.0” has two main features: 1) intensive use of the Internet and electronic devices for planning, obtaining important information and performing many important tasks; 2) multitasking behavior, due to which the overall working capacity is significantly increased. Advanced families manage to complete many more tasks per day. In other words, in “2.0 families”, the day stretches longer than the usual 24 hours.

As part of the study, 4,783 families were surveyed in 16 countries, including Russia. It turned out that, on average, every modern family owns 11 electronic devices (12 in the United States). This technique greatly helps family members keep in touch with each other. Using IM pagers allows parents to improve relationships with children. More than half of young respondents (18-34 years old) admitted that without technological devices they would not be able to communicate with friends and relatives at all. Every third says that the technology increases its social activity and helps to overcome shyness.

Children in families 2.0 spend a lot of time on the Internet. Parents sometimes worry that their offsprings are not walking enough on the street: 31% of parents in the United States have such concerns. This is less than in South Korea, India and Taiwan (41% each) and in China (63%). At the same time, the vast majority of families observe traditional family values, such as dinner together. This means that the Internet is not yet capable of disrupting the traditional family lifestyle.
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But the benefits of modern technology is obvious. Due to the multitasking family, 2.0 can perform much more work. In fact, the day for them is stretched from the usual 24 hours right up to 43. If we sum up the duration of all the cases that a person manages to do in a day, then it will be just 43 hours. This includes the use of the Internet ( 3.6 hours ), the use of an IM-pager ( 1 hour ) and email correspondence ( 1.2 hours ).

More than half of the parents say that the Internet is useful for their child: The network helps the student to do his homework, improves his general cultural development and erudition. Parents today very often turn to children for help in many technical issues, and children are looking for all the necessary information on the Internet.