Technology and Family Leisure: Is It the Way Forward?

Families are one of the fundamental units of society and are the building blocks of social structures and organizations in every culture. A theoretical framework that has been used to describe and understand how families function and interact is the Family Systems Theory (Steinglass 1987; Whitchurch & Constantine 1993). According to the Family Systems Theory, the family is a complex system of individuals interacting with one another. The concepts of family cohesion, family adaptability and family communication are the key to continuation of family systems. Over the last seventy years, researchers have consistently reported positive relationships between family leisure and positive family outcomes when examining recreation and leisure patterns among families (Hawks 1991; Holman & Epperson 1984; Orthner & Mancini 1991).

 Enjoying family leisure time can be a way through which  cohesion, adaptability and communication is increased within families. The perils of the modern world with its fast paced life, both parents working, emergence of nuclear families, pressures of weekend socializing, demands of curriculum on the children have all made a serious dent in family leisure time. 

The present paper proposes to examine the role of technology especially communication technology in promoting family leisure time amongst urban educated families.