Family Communication in the Age of Digital and Social Media is an innovative collection of contemporary data-driven research and theorizing about how digital and social media are affecting and changing nearly every aspect of family interaction over the lifespan. The research and thinking featured in the book reflects the intense growth of interest in families in the digital age. Chapters explore communication among couples, families, parents, adolescents, and emerging adults as their realities are created, impacted, changed, structured, improved, influenced and/or inhibited by cell phones, smartphones, personal desktop and laptop computers, MP3 players, e-tablets, e-readers, email, Facebook, photo sharing, Skype, Twitter, SnapChat, blogs, Instagram, and other emerging technologies. Each chapter significantly advances thinking about how digital media have become deeply embedded in the lives of families and couples, as well as how they are affecting the very ways we as twenty-first-century communicators see ourselves and, by extension, conceive of and behave in our most intimate and longest-lasting relationships.

Carol J. Bruess (PhD, Ohio University) is Professor of Communication and Journalism and Director of Family Studies at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota. She is the author of four books and dozens of journal articles and chapters, and is a regular contributor to the media on contemporary family issues.

Contents: Lynne M. Webb: Research on Technology and the Family: From Misconceptions to More Accurate Understandings ¿ Jeffrey T. Child/Sandra Petronio: Privacy Management Matters in Digital Family Communication ¿ Meg Wilkes Karraker: Global Families in a Digital Age ¿ Katherine M. Hertlein/Markie L. C. Blumer: The Couple and Family Technology Framework ¿ Emily M. Cramer/Edward A. Mabry: Exploring the Interaction of Media Richness and Family Characteristics in Computer-Mediated Communication ¿ Carol J. Bruess/Xiaohui (Sophie) Li/Tamara J. Polingo: Facebook Family Rituals: An Investigation ¿ Anne C. Fletcher/Bethany L. Blair: Adolescent Use of Visual Media in Social Technologies: The Appeal, Risks, and Role of Parental Communication in Shaping Adolescent Behavior ¿ Elizabeth Dorrance Hall/Megan K. Feister: Navigating Emerging Adulthood with Communication Technology ¿ Madeline E. Smith: Staying Connected: Supportive Communication During the College Transition ¿ Fred P. Piercy/Dana Riger/Christina Voskanova/Wei-Ning Chang/Emily Haugen/Leonard Sturdivant: What Marriage and Family Therapists Tell Us about Improving Couple Relationships through Technology ¿ Brandon T. McDaniel: «Technoference»: Everyday Intrusions and Interruptions of Technology in Couple and Family Relationships ¿ Michelle Y. Janning/Neal J. Christopherson: 12 Love Letters Lost?: Gender and the Preservation of Digital and Paper Communication from Romantic Relationships ¿ Andrea Guziec Iaccheri/Adam W. Tyma: «Unplugging the Power Cord»: Uncovering Hidden Power Structures via Mobile Communication Technology Use within the Traditional Marital Dyad ¿ Jaclyn D. Cravens/Jason B. Whiting: Couples¿ Communication of Rules and Boundaries for Social Networking Site Use ¿ Laura Beth Daws: Creating Couples¿ Identities: Telling and Distorting via «Wedsite» Relationship Narratives ¿ Susan K. Walker: Social Context Influences on Parenting: A Theoretical Model of the Role of Social Media ¿ Stephanie Tikkanen/Walid Afifi/Anne Merrill: Gr8 Textpectations: Parents¿ Experiences of Anxiety in Response to Adolescent Mobile Phone Delays ¿ Liesel L. Sharabi/David J. Roaché/Kimberly B. Pusateri: Parental Uncertainty and Information Seeking on Facebook ¿ Jodi Dworkin/Susan Walker/Jessica Rudi/Jennifer Doty: Parents¿ Use of New Media for Communication about Parenting: A Consideration of Demographic Differences ¿ J. Mitchell Vaterlaus/Sarah Tulane: Digital Generation Differences in Parent-Adolescent Relationships ¿ Falon Kartch/Lindsay M. Timmerman: Nonresidential Parenting and New Media Technologies: A Double-Edged Sword ¿ Markie L. C. Blumer/Katherine M. Hertlein: The Technology-Focused Genogram: A Tool for Exploring Intergenerational Family Communication Patterns around Technology Use.