Family and Social Media: A Study of Patterns of Interaction Among Family Members on Facebook

Social media can be described as a set of technologies and services that make self-publishing online very easy and allow the consumers of a particular medium to interact, most commonly through comments of some sort. Facebook, Twitter, You Tube etc. are common example of social media. The reach of these tools is global but in usage they are not universal as access is restricted by the availability and viability of communications, infrastructure, and personal device (i.e. phones, computers/laptops, i-pods), skills and most importantly the interest to actually participate in social media activity. Moreover, participation in certain networks and activities in a social media differs from country to country. It has been observed that Facebook is one among the most popular social networking sites for the people of all age groups. It not only connects a person with his friends, colleagues, virtual friends but also with members of his/her family. The patterns of interaction among the family members vary in terms of age, sex, sharing contents, comments, posting messages on timeline and tagging etc. The review of the existing literature indicates that: the teenagers send more friend request to their parents; Married daughters post more on timeline of their parents; Mothers are more concerned about the safety of their son. The present are explores these issues by analyzing the interaction patterns among the family members in India in an ongoing research study conducted on a purposive sample of 50 Facebook users who are in (Facebook) ‘friendship’ tie with their parent/son/daughter/spouse/brother using social network approach.