Doing family online: (In)formal knowledge circulation, information‐seeking practices, and support communities

• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Laura Odasso,Karine Geoffrion
• Date: 01 April 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12865

EDITORIAL

Doing family online: (In)formal knowledge

circulation, information-seeking practices,

and support communities

Laura Odasso

1

|Karine Geoffrion

2

1

Chaire Migrations et Sociétés, Collège de

France, Paris, France

2

Department of Anthropology, Université

Laval, Quebec, Canada

Correspondence

Laura Odasso, Collège de France, 3 rue

d’Ulm, Paris 75231, France,

Email: laura.odasso@college-de-france.fr

Abstract

Objective: Drawing on the theory of polymedia and on the

role of information and communications technology (ICT)

in (re)defining the articulation between the private and the

public, this introduction reflects on what ICT does to and

for families around the world.

Background: Through the development of networking plat-

forms, video call applications, personal sites, and collaborative

information platforms, ICT has changed the way people live,

love, and interact. It has also afforded new ways to “do family.”

Method: By featuring studies from a variety of national

and regional contexts (Canada, Chile, Ghana, Greece,

Moldova, South Korea, Ukraine, the Netherlands, United

States, and Turkey), it establishes a dialogue between dis-

ciplines and a fruitful cross-fertilization of research topics,

methodologies, analyses, and theoretical perspectives.

Results: This special issue explores (a) the nexus among

family life, relationships, and ICT and (b) the relation

between the everyday lived experiences of family members

and the broader social structures that circumscribe the

width and breadth of those experiences.

Conclusion: The contributions show the porosity of the

boundary between public and private spaces. Alternative

forms of expertise and parenting norms are emerging

online. ICTs are integrated into parents’information-

seeking and sharing practices, and emotional support.

They sustain relationships between family members across

distance. However, inequalities regarding access to the

Internet and computer literacy still jeopardize digital citi-

zenship and democratization.

Implication: The contributions in this special issue high-

light the need for better structuring of interventions and

policies to support families by using up-to-date ICT

Received: 17 January 2023Accepted: 17 January 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12865

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:389–405. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 389

systems and creating mentorship programs and digital

mediation for family professionals and beneficiaries.

KEYWORDS

affordance, ambient presence, connected devices, connected presence,

digital literacy, doing family, emotional support, good or proper parent,

information bulimia and obesity, information communication and

technologies (ICT), information-seeking practices, information-sharing

practices, intensive parenting, kin, kinship

Like many parents with young children, we tried to find solutions to minor health problems

such as skin rashes by searching the Internet (Simas et al., 2021). At that moment, the only thing

that seemed important was our children’s well-being. Entangled in the various urges of our daily

routines, we did not realize the broader implications of our easy access to the Internet in our lives

as parents. In December 2022, while coordinating this special issue on the role of the Internet in

couples’and families’everyday activities and modes of relating, we did a similar Google search,

but this time to examinethe mechanisms behind the simple search for information. Before we

even finished typing “rash,”the search bar proposed several options: “baby rash cream,”“baby

rash around the mouth,”“baby rashes on face and body.”Then, in a mere 0.50 seconds, Google

suggested a list of online resources that amounted to “about 752,000,000 results.”A response to

the initial inquiry, framed and highlighted at the top of the page, immediately appeared on the

screen, before a list of web links, ordered according to algorithms (Pasquinelli, 2009; Ziakis et al.,

2019). Put simply, the search proposed responses based on the links that were clicked on the most.

In the case of baby rashes, the highlighted definition read:

Many newborns develop a blotchy red skin reaction called erythema toxicum,

which can appear between 2 days and 2 weeks after birth. Flat, red patches or small

bumps often first appear on the face and spread to the body and limbs. The rash is

harmless, not contagious, and will clear after a few days or a week.

This excerpt was taken from the website Pregnancy, Birth & Baby (2022), a site produced and

managed by the Australian government. The next several pages of links all referred to sites

stemming from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. It is noteworthy to add

that all the babies featured were White.

This example pointsto one of the manifold ways in which the Internet has contributed to

shaping information-seeking practices of parents who have access to a connected device and pos-

sess digital competencies, but also how ideologies about “good”parenting

1

(Faircloth, 2021;

Pedersen, 2012,2016), topics that should matter or not matter, and tips and tricks circulate and

are (re)produced, appropriated, applied at home by individuals, transformed, and normalized. If

Google searches rely on informational hierarchies based on algorithms, users’participation also

contributes to ranking and structuringavailable content (Stenger & Coutant, 2013). Nevertheless,

the facility and rapidity with which some parents can find online answers to their worries may

compete with information gained through traditional channels and authority figures, such as their

own parent or a family member who may have had a similar experience. Moreover, even though

social disparities in access to the Web and information and communication technologies (ICT),

and in digital literacy (the acquired competence to manipulatehard technologies and efficiently

use their various applications) still exist around the world and across social groups (Cullen, 2001;

Mardikyan et al., 2015), amultiplicity of connected devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and

laptops, is readily available in most environments (Park, 2013). It has the potential to increase

further the reliance of individuals around the world on Web 2.0 for their daily activities and

needs, of which information-seeking practices are but one example.

390 EDITORIAL