Technology 'Keeps Families Connected'

Technology is bringing American families together in new ways rather than driving them apart, concludes a new study. Family members rely on cell phone calls, text messages, and emails to stay in touch several times a day, and watch YouTube videos together, using computers as a "virtual hearth," researchers found.

Among adults polled in the survey, 47% said that cell phones and the internet improved the quality of family communication, reports the Washington Post. "There had been some fears that the internet had been taking people away from each other," said a sociology professor and one of the authors of the study for the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "We found just the opposite."

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