One of the most strikingly obvious impacts of information technology is the shift in the work-home relationship. People say they never took work home, yet the computer had its own room and engineering magazines littered every flat surface. They talk of their "work" -- ongoing career preparation, finances, and parenting. But they distinguished that from their "work-work," that is, paid work for a particular organization. A large proportion of supposedly free time was spent thinking about "work-work" while in the shower, eating, or driving. Families use information technologies to "work" on themselves. They use the telecommunication devices to coordinate activities ranging from after school baseball to weddings. They create networks of connectedness by making and sending videotapes and E-mailing distant relatives. Family histories are recorded and distributed. Cell phones and pagers create a sense of street safety. One woman used the LCD information on her husband's pager to discover an infidelity that led to a sudden restructuring of the family. These uses are not trivial, but ones that shape people's social reality. Family use of technology is not trivial, but underpins important cultural work done by families. Families frame playing computer games as gaining "computer literacy" and providing a common activity for "being a family", unlike doing the traditional way of doing things together as a family like going to the church, mall or having a picnic. .
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From the social standpoint, technology serves as a barrier in the traditional way of interaction which is being face-to-face with another. The Internet has changed the way we interact with each other. They can use the internet to chat with someone who is on the other side of the world, whether this someone is an old acquaintance or a complete stranger. No longer do people have to be in the same room at the same time. A person can move between two worlds, taking from each and bringing to the other insights, emotions, and thoughts.