How Family Members Stay in Touch: A Quantitative Investigation of Core Family Networks

Traditionally, people's closest family members resided locally where face-to-face interaction was the predominant mode of communication. Today, in addition to face-to-face visits, one can use a landline telephone, cellular telephone, or any number of the computer-mediated communications such as e-mail. This article explores the modes of communication people use most with their three closest family members with a particular emphasis on how mode of communication may vary by three factors: (1) family member locality, (2) physical distance of the family member, and (3) frequency of communication. The results from a 2005 random sample mail survey show that e-mail has become an important tool in maintaining core familial social networks, especially when these family members live outside the local area. The impacts of computer-mediated communications on the maintenance of familial networks and resulting social capital are addressed.