One in Five UK Parents Use Gadgets as In-Home Intercom with Kids

In another sign of how technology can foster more communication, a new survey in Britain found that one in five parents use tech gadgets to talk to their own children while inside the same home.

Supermarket chain Asda recently conducted a nationwide survey and found parents were increasingly using technology as a form of in-home intercom with their kids, calling them to dinner or telling them to do their chores.

The most popular channel for this in-home communication was text messaging, which accounted for 55 percent of interactions. Facebook followed with 20 percent, and mobile phone calls trailed with 13 percent. For parents, the most popular message was “Dinner’s ready,” which accounted for 13 percent of messages on all mediums. Parents also frequently sent messages such as “clean your room” and “do your homework.”

“The fact is that technology puts us in touch with more people more often than ever before – and this is as true at home as it is when we’re out and about. Communicating with teens, for example, has never been the easiest thing for parents, and now low-cost gadgets are giving us a hotline to their rooms,” said Asda’s technology expert Nathan Mills.

Source: Gigaom
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/12/one-in-five-parents-use-gadgets-as-in-home-intercom-with-kids/