访谈录 2008-11-06&11-08 家庭高科技，拉近彼此距离（在线收听）

We are living in a hi-tech world, cell phones, the Internet video games; the list of gadgets that keep invading our lives keeps growing. You’d think that all those distractions would pull families apart but that may not be the case. Here’s CBS News Science and Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

Maybe the best example of Ozzie and Harriet living in the digital age is the Romoser family from Seattle.

Ha…my grandma just texted me, my dad, my grandma, my friend Katie …that was in like two minutes. Whether it’s 15-year-old Katie who defines multi-tasker, to a 13-year-old David engrossed in video games.

Don’t do it, don’t take it

To Mom Tracy and Dad Michael  trying to keep track of it all.

I will text them or else I‘ll …get dinner started and practise your trombone, so we know where they are at all times, which it’s really great.

Cell phones, e-mail, instant messaging -- It’s part of nearly every busy family's life on the go. But does that technology actually bring them closer together.

It’s just different. I think we are just as close uh, but, but it’s in a different way. According to a new study, 25% said their family is closer today than when they were growing up. Thanks to all the new tech-gadgets that connect us, the Web and cell phones; just 11% said their families were just close and 60% said the technologies made no difference.

Maybe parents uh, need, need to feel like they can reach their kids more, you know, than our parents did. The study also found that some families gather around the computer together, watch like ball games of the past.

Experts like Jeffery Cole who was not part of the study says while hi-tech communication lacks face-to-face time, it can still be meaningful.

As far as it’s affecting family relationships in almost every meaningful way, it makes people feel better connected.

The Romosers who set limits for their kids worry about a larger impact.

Here we are raising a generation of people that are, you know, texting on their phones and on line with chatting and all that and I wonder about the societal impact of their communication skills.

In the meantime it’s back to being plugged in. For The Early Show, Daniel Sieberg CBS news, Los Angeles