ICT-based co-presence in transnational families and communities: challenging the premise of face-to-face proximity in sustaining relationships

The proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and new media environments has begun to challenge the premise that strong relationships require face-to-face interactions. It is the expansion and enhancement of technologies of communication such as the internet, smartphones and social media that have contributed to the recent, startling emergence of a new social environment of ubiquitous connectivity. The concept of ?ICT-based co-presence? is used to capture and explore the diverse ways in which people maintain a sense of ?being there? for each other across distance.