Yuet Ling LawComms 301Technology PaperProfessor Callahan 18 Jun 2014

How different types of communication technology changes the way we communicate with our family?As an international student, I live far away from my family. There is an ocean and about 15 hours of time difference between my parents and I. Thanks to the advanced communication technology, I do not really feel homesick. I can easily contact them if I want to talk to them. However, when my sister studied here in BYU ten years ago, she always complained about being lonely and she wanted to go home. I found that different communication tools have great impact on how we perceive our relationship with our families. With newer communication technology invented, the ways of how people communicate with their families change from time to time, especially for students who live far away from their families.Mail was the major communication tool to communicate with families who live far away. It connects two places together, either within or outside the country. Before Airplane was invented, there was only surface mail. For international mail, surface mail usually takes a month to three months. Later, there was airmail that only takes a week or two for international mail. Although airplane was invented long before, I still remember my sister mailed home through surface mail because it was cheaper. We would wait for three months for her package and parents and I would be very happy when we received it. We were excited to learn about her life in the previous months. We cherished the letters and the food she sent us, which I would spend three whole months to finish the snacks. However, later when she earned more money, she mailed home through airmail. Since I knew I did not have to wait for that long before I receive another package, I would finish the snacks very quickly. My sister also knew that the time difference between home was shorter because of airmail, therefore her letters would become shorter, although she did not mail home that often because of the more expensive airmail service. Surface mail took more time to connect to family, but the longer waiting time made people cherish the opportunity to communicate with their family. Besides mailing, mobile phone is also an important tool for students to overcome geographic limitation to contact family. Compared to mail, mobile phone is a little more expensive communication tool, but it can help people feel closer to home and not that lonely. A study from Ball State University shows that 99.8 percent of college student own some kind of cell phone. Palen and Hughes (2006) found that students use mobile phone to maintain emotional connections with family members while they are away from home. (Alderson, 2012) Unlike mail, telephone can let family members to hear each others voice. With a phone call, two places are linked together immediately. After buying a mobile phone, my sister only sent package to home once a year. Mailing was no longer her first option to keep in touch with the family; instead, it became a tool to send package only. She would call home few times a week for fifteen minutes every time. She felt closer to the family that we were only a phone call away, not an ocean away anymore. A research (Alderson, 2012) shows that college students have a feeling of safety with the use of mobile phone that it is good for emergency contact. Also, mobile phone may ease the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Mobile phones permit children to stay in the family dynamic even if they are far away from home. However, at the same time, mobile phone may prevent children from being independent. Parents can reach children too easily that their children may rely on parents on making decisions. My friends mother calls her children every night to get updates of their lives and my friend always asks for her advices on whom to hang out with. Mobile phone is certainly a great invention for students to draw closer to their family; however, it may also make students rely too much on their parents. While telephone connects two places together, videophone technology enables people at two different places to be in the same place in real time. It allows children to talk to parents face-to-face, just like how they do at home. Time and distance are no longer limitations for families with children live far away from home. My friend had family prayers everyday with his family back in Hong Kong when he was studying here at UVU. They had family prayers in the mornings in Hong Kong time, which was the evening in Utah. They were only a screen away from each other. Another example is that my sister doesnt complain being away from parents anymore. She uses videophone, for example Skype, to talk to my parents very often. Home is no longer in her dreams but in her daily life. She can see parents and siblings on the screen. The feeling is more realistic than to only hear our voices on phone. Videophone eliminates the distance between parents and children living far away, and it creates a virtual home environment for them. Videophone also helps people to participate in family gatherings. In the past, people had to come all the way to family members graduation or wedding. Nowadays, one may notice people holding their phones during ceremonies to let the person on the other side of the screen participate too (Goyer, 2010). This draws families closer to each other. A study (Brooke, 2010) shows that videophone benefits children and parents in divorced families. Parents can meet with children in their original families through video call and develop relationship with their kids. As a result, Kids would have fewer behavior and emotional problems. They will do better in school and have higher self-esteem. Videophone not only eliminates the distances between parents and children who live far away from home, it also helps divorced families to meet with their original families to develop mutually beneficial relationships. These are things that could not be achieved by phone or mail. Although phone and videophone had already greatly impacted the way families communicate, it was instant messenger that redefined communication within family members who live far apart from each other. Instant messaging allows two Internet users to exchange typed messages in real time (Keffer). Since users do not have to pay for individual message sent, instant messengers are popular among college students. A research of 4,375 college students (Kvavik, 2014) shows that the average time they spend on instant messaging is 3.45 hours everyday, and they contact their family members and close friends equally frequently. This is a great founding because students would not spend so much time on making phone calls to family. Instant messengers change this culture. Instant messengers allow users to contact to family and friends anytime without time limitations. Unlike videophone and phone, instant messenger recipients and senders do not need to be online at the same time to get connected. They can leave a message immediately at the time they want, and wait for the recipients to read the message. The good thing for instant messengers is that it has time stamp that allows users to check if the message was sent and if the recipients have read the message. Unlike mail, instant messengers users can make sure the recipients has received the message. Instant messaging has the benefit of phone calls, which it connects two places at real time, and it also allows users to communicate when they are in an environment that is not available to talk. Moreover, it enables group conversation that greatly improves the communication within my family. All of my family members installed an instant messenger called Whatsapp on our phones. We created a family chat group and it helps us to keep in touch as a family, as we are all living in different places around the world. For example, I usually chat with my dad at night in Utah time, that is the morning in Hong Kong. Since he goes to work on train, talking to him on phone is not a good option because of the noise on train, and the connection is not good either. Therefore, we found it more convenient to chat on Whatsapp. If I fell asleep, he would leave me a message and I would check it the next day. Another benefit of instant messaging is that it allows users to leave voice messages. Family can listen to each others voice at the same time and they can save the time on calling each other individually. Instant messengers changed the concept of distance. Distance and time differences are no longer barriers for family communication. I would not feel homesick because I know I can reach my family easily. I would not think communication to family members is hard. Parents and siblings are only a button away from me and I would not try to set a specific time to contact them because I know they are always on the other side of my phone. The development of communication technology changes the way families communicate along the way. Students started making phone calls to home instead of writing letters after the introduction of mobile phone. Later, videophone became popular among students as it connects people at the same time and same place. It enables families to stay in the same family environment they had when they were living together, when they could see each other easily. Lastly, instant messengers create a new communication environment for public. It eliminates the distances between distant places and makes everyone living in the same time zone. However, among the above technologies, students and families tend to cherish the communication with families the most in the mail era. Because of the limited opportunity to contact with families, people spent a lot of time to write to families. Although instant messengers links family members together in one place, compared to mail, the desire to contact family members is much lower.Instead of discriminating the older communication technology, newer communication tools provide more options for people to connect to each other. Although many students use the newer technology more often, they would still use the older technology for specific needs. They cannot send packages home through instant messengers. They would still call home for important issues. I am grateful for communication technologies that I can keep in touch with my family back in Hong Kong easily.

ReferencesAlderson, J. (2012, August 1). A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF COLLEGE STUDENT USE OF MOBILE PHONES FOR FAMILY COMMUNICATION.. Retrieved June 18, 2014, from https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/4257/ALDERSON-THESIS.pdf?sequence=2

Brooke, J. (n.d.). Honey, Your Dad's on Skype: How Technology is Making Parenting Easier for Divorced Families.Atom. Retrieved June 18, 2014, from http://www.cozi.com/live-simply/honey-your-dads-skype-how-technology-making-parenting-easier-divorced-families

Finnegan, L. (2010, June 28). 99.8% Of College Students Have Cell Phones: Ball State Study.The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 18, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/998-of-college-students-h_n_628161.html

Goyer, A. (2010, September 30). Comparing Family Technology Then & Now_ Smart Phones, Skype, Facebook -- AARP.AARP. Retrieved June 18, 2014, from http://www.aarp.org/relationships/family/info-09-2010/advances_in_family_technology.3.html

Keffer, L. (n.d.). Parenting.Right Now: Teens and Instant Messenger. Retrieved June 18, 2014, from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/protecting_your_family/staying_on_top_of_your_teens_technology/right_now_teens_and_instant_messenger.aspx

Kvavik, R. B. (n.d.). Convenience, Communications, and Control: How Students Use Technology.EDUCAUSE Homepage. Retrieved June 18, 2014, from http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/convenience-communications-and-control-how-students-use-technology

Palen, Leysia and Amanda Hughes. (2007). When Home Base is Not a Place: Parents' Use of Mobile Telephone. Pers Ubiquit Comput 11:339-348.