Together While Apart: Virtual Families and Friends

Michelle Slatalla, New York Times Cyberfamilias Columnist, Writes About Virtual Families and Friends. She Also Blogs

In spring 2007, The New York Times launched a twice-a-month column by Michelle Slatalla called Cyberfamilias. The column has essentially the same focus as this blog, about "the changing landscape of family life under the influence of the Net." In introducing the column, The Times wrote:

"Now almost every chapter of family life has an online component. In the Slatalla household, husband and wife live in I.M. windows on each other’s screens. The family stores its photos, vacation itineraries and tax records online. Their youngest daughter, 9, cavorts with friends in the virtual universe Club Penguin. Their oldest, 18, has been offered a summer job thanks to videos she posted on YouTube."

Slatalla's columns are archived here.

She also blogs here, and is author of The Town on Beaver Creek: The Story of a Lost Kentucky Community.

'Is That My Shirt You're Wearing?' Mom and College Daughter Video Chat

New York Times, Cyberfamilias column by Michelle Slatalla. Click

Egads, Mom and Dad Are On Facebook! Clicking and Not Clicking With the Facebook Crowd

Three interesting pieces, from perspectives of both parents and children:

Mom's On Facebook. Time to Ramp Up My Security Settings (WinnipegSun.com)

Following My Son Onto Facebook. Why Does He Have So Many More Friends Than I Do?

OMG, My Mom Joined Facebook (New York Times), with lots of interesting comments, including this:

I am a 51 year old male resident in Cape Town with a 14-year-old daughter in Bath, a 24 year old son in Southampton and a 23 year old daughter in Freemantle. Facebook rules. We keep in touch regularly and everyone gets to enjoy the updates. There’s no problem. “Teach your children well”. — Posted by rob

A Student Who Doesn't Click With the Facebook Crowd. Popularity on Campus As Measured By Facebook, by Jennifer DeBarardinis. She has only 161 "friends."

Facebook for Fiftysomethings: I'm unfriendly, solitary, and 30 years older than everyone else on the site, but could social networking work for me anyway? by Emily Yoffe

Sure You Read Me, But Will You Friend Me? By Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post

Teens Say, "It's OUR Facebook!" 

Videoblogging a Vacation

By Jim Buie

I videoblogged my family's summer vacation out west. Not in real time -- that would be too much like work. But in the weeks since we returned from Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, I have re-lived the vacation and re-explored online some of the sites we saw. I've also published on my blog excerpts from my wife's journal and video clips of my son. I've educated friends and family about fantastic places, so that they are putting such places on their future vacation itineraries. I'm sure that video-blogging a vacation will become a cultural phenomenon.

Basic video-editing software like Windows Moviemaker comes free with most computers these days. It's pretty simple to use. Drag and drop photos and videos and music clips, push a button to snip or edit a clip. Judge for yourself my results. I'll get better at it as I use it more.

Drill Deeper Re Videoblogging A Vacation:

• Guess Where? Basic Geography Lesson
• Bears and Us
• Traversing the West, Encountering Wild Animals, Participating in a Rodeo, Sleeping in a Teepee, Whitewater Rafting
• On the streets of Helena, Montana, 'Pogoman' Draws Attention to Homelessness, Affordable Housing
• Saving Money on Road Trips
• Lure of the Open Road Is Quintessentially American. I've Now Visited 39 States. How Many Have You Visited?
• Northwestern Montana Feels Almost Like Another Country
• Spectacular 12-Mile Hike in Glacier National Park, Montana
• Falling in Love with the Crown Jewel of the Continent, But Fearing for Its Future

Good Morning America Report on Virtual Visitation

Chuck Mason and his nine-year-old daughter Arielle were interviewed in a segment for ABC's Good Morning America to illustration the power of maintaining family relationships by webcam. Click to watch.

As Family Members Await Visas, They Communicate Via Webcam

Jennifer Ludden, NPR

Ana Sanchez Lobo and her husband, Ramon Lobo, communicate regularly through a Web cam link. They haven't seen each other since January 2005, National Public Radio reports in a story on family members who wish to join the one million foreigners who immigrate to the U.S. each year. "This Filipino family has endured two generations of separation to come to America....

Shared Parenting Grows As Lifestyle Option

As many as 30 percent of divorced families enact shared parenting, in which the child(ren) live with both parents, moving from mom's house to dad's house. The Christian Science Monitor reports: "Your, Mine, Ours, Then Yours Again. Many divorced couples are trying a more equitable sharing of child-rearing duties. But it's not for all."

TV Interview With Virtual Dad Michael Gough After Passage of Legislation in Wisconsin

One of the best video news reports so far interviewing a father who virtually visits with his daughter was conducted by NBC 15 in Madison, Wisconsin. Michael Gough explains how and why he does it. He's responsible for legislation passing in two states now that gives non-custodial parents the right to communicate by webcam with their children. Watch the video clip. Read the text of the news story.

Father in California Virtually Visits With Daughter in England

David List of Santa Cruz, CA. discusses how he virtually visits two or three times a week with his five-year-old daughter in England. He was interviewed by Fox News 35 in Santa Cruz. Click to watch.

New Immigrants Video-Conference With Families Back in the Old Country

Mario Melan of Bay Shore, N.Y. laid eyes on his five-year-old granddaughter, who lives in Columbia, for the first time over video-conference. His wife, Marta Jaramillo-Ospina, almost didn't recognize her grown children, who she hadn't seen in four years, on the webcam. She sat stunned, and he burst into tears.

"Such technological meetings are a slowly growing, niche business in immigrant neighborhoods across the country thanks to savvy immigrant entrepreneurs who see economic opportunity in family bonds," the Associated Press reports.