Family Conflicts and Technology Use: The Voices of Grandmothers

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Loredana Ivan,Galit Nimrod
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12530

L INational University of Political Studies and Public Administration

G NBen Gurion University of the Negev

Family Conicts and Technology Use: The Voices

of Grandmothers

Objective: Our aim was to understand family

conicts, specically those involving grand-

mothers, related to use of new communication

technologies.

Background: Research shows that tension

between family members in intergenerational

contexts arises in relation to technology. This is

especially common when attitudes toward tech-

nology differ among family members. Differing

opinions around technology use create gaps

in skills and perceived competence. Grandpar-

ents’ voices about the challenges of perpetual

connectivity in family settings are absent in

the research on technology domestication and

mediation.

Method: To ll this gap, semistructured group

interviews were conducted with women in

Canada, Colombia, Israel, Italy, Peru, Romania,

and Spain. All women were aged 65years and

older, had grandchildren, and used information

and communication technology (ICT).

Results: Grandmothers experienced conicts

when interacting with grandchildren due to

ginability to recognize online threats. Asking for

help in managing different applications could

be a source of family conicts. Embarrassment

and unease is reduced when grandmothers call

Communication Department, National Univer-

sity of Political Studies and Public Administration

(SNSPA), Expozitiei 30A, Bucharest 012104, Romania

(loredana.ivan@comunicare.ro).

Key Words: family conicts, grandmothers, grandparents,

information and communication technologies, mediation.

grandchildren for help, rather than receive

assistance from their adult children. Conictual

moments also emerged around the use of ICT

at family dinners or other gatherings, with

grandmothers showing more tolerance in this

context for grandchildren than for their adult

children.

Conclusion: Family conicts over technology

use may differ when involving adult children

versus grandchildren.

Implications: The voices of grandmothers

express the importance of permanent and

affordable opportunities for people to receive

assistance in technology use outside of family

contexts.

Family relations are often shaped by the use

of information and communication technology

(ICT). There is a growing body of research

investigating the effects of technology use on

family practices and intergenerational com-

munication. Particularly in studies focusing

on grandparenting, various positive aspects of

technology use are underlined (Carvalho et al.,

2016). Researchers have found that spending

time with family members using ICT increased

cohesiveness (Sharaievska & Stodolska, 2017),

especially for transnational families (Baldassar

et al., 2016) or families with members living

far apart (Ivan & Hebblethwaite, 2016). Also,

using new technology has proved to have a

positive impact on the grandparents’ quality

of life, reducing loneliness and giving them a

sense of continuity (Lifshitz et al., 2018). Most

104Family Relations 70 (February 2021): 104–119

DOI:10.1111/fare.12530

Family Conicts and Technology Use105

studies involving grandparents focus on positive

facets of ICT use in intergenerational contexts.

However, left largely underdeveloped are the

conictual aspects of the roles ICT plays in

family communication.

Furthermore, grandparents’ voices about the

challenges of perpetual connectivity in family

settings and about the mediation on rules and

expectations and ICT domestication are over-

looked in studies (Nimrod et al., 2019), with

the exception of those on transnational families

where ICT use has been seen as a way to ll

the gap of missing members (i.e., Nedelcu &

Wyss, 2016). Typically, such studies do not con-

sider conicts arising around the use of ICT in

family settings.

Relying on the conceptual framework

of domestication theory suggested by Had-

don (2007), the current study aims to investigate

the types of conicts involving grandparents

over the use of technology in family con-

texts, focusing on grandmothers’ descriptions

of everyday interactions. We also employed

the interpersonal communication framework

(Mesch, 2003) to explore family conicts, that

is, typical cases when conict might arise and

the specics of and differences in conicts

between grandparents and grandchildren versus

grandparents and adult children. This study will

further our understanding of challenges of ICT

adoption and incorporation into family practices

and potential conicts between generations.

By focusing of grandmothers’ stories in dif-

ferent countries, we provide important insights

because grandmothers play a signicant role

in family communication and family bonding

(Sorensen & Cooper 2010; Tarrant, 2010).

D  ICT  F

C

Research has shown that ICT has reshaped

family relational patterns, and new technolo-

gies challenge traditional family practices

(Haddon & Mante-Meijer, 2016; Stafford &

Hillyer, 2012). The way families incorporate

and use ICT in intergenerational contexts has

become a prominent topic of research over

the past few years (Gamliel, 2017; Ouel-

let et al., 2017; Taipale et al., 2018). The

process of domestication of ICT (i.e., the

way family incorporate the new technolo-

gies and offer them meaning) has gained

researchers’ attention. Domestication theory

(Silverstone & Haddon, 1996) originated in

both science–technology studies and media

studies. The theory describes the processes

involved in “taming” (i.e., appropriating) new

technologies by their users. The theory refers to

the extent to which users take an artifact from the

public into the private realm, gain control, shape

or attribute meaning, and make it an integral

part of their lives. These processes take place

against the background of the moral economy of

the household. The interplay of these processes

determines the nature and patterns of technology

use that eventually result in the social transfor-

mation of the interpersonal relations between

family members. Similarly,technologies acquire

meanings and are incorporated in accordance

with the household’s own values and interests

(Haddon, 2007, 2017a). Haddon (2007) sug-

gested that domestication of ICT unravels chal-

lenges on the acceptance–rejection dimension

and also on rules and expectations, which often

translate into conicts between generations.

Contemporary grandparents and grand-

children tend to see each other frequently

(Smith, 2005). Recent surveys across Europe

demonstrate that about half of the participating

grandparents look after at least one grandchild,

typically at a frequency of once a week or

more (Di Gessa et al., 2015). Similarly, sur-

veys of families in the United States show that

50% of young children spend at least some

time with their grandparents in a typical week

(Hank et al., 2018). However, current studies

on ICT domestication have revolved around

parent–child or parent–adolescent interactions

and include grandparents to a lesser extent (Had-

don, 2017b). Studies with parents and children

show that there are potential advantages, as well

as tensions, related to ICT use in home settings.

Common examples of instances associated with

such tensions between parent and children are

those described by the concept of technofer-

ence, rst used by McDaniel and Coyne (2016),

which describes the everyday intrusion and

interruptions generated by technology use as

potential source of family conicts.

Parents play a central role in ICT adoption

in relation to use by both their children and

the children’s grandparents (see, e.g., Sawchuk

& Crow, 2012). Grandparents also contribute

to decisions about ICT use, especially when

they spend a fair amount of time taking care

of grandchildren (Nimrod et al., 2019). This

might especially be the case in multigenerational