From Face-to-Face to Digital: How Technology Reconfigures Parent-Child Communication
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/tunascendekia.v9i1.12554Keywords:
communication, parent, children, digital, screentimeAbstract
Digital technology has become an integral part of everyday family life, reshaping how parents and children maintain contact, exchange information, and participate in family interaction. Although previous research has extensively examined children's screen use, online risks, and parental mediation, less attention has been given to how digital technology itself reconfigures the communicative relationship between parents and children. This study examines how digital technology influences parent–child communication patterns, the opportunities and challenges it creates, and parents' and children's perceptions of communication quality. A qualitative descriptive design was employed to explore the lived experiences and perspectives of parents and children within the same families. Data were collected through separate semi-structured interviews with parents and children and analyzed thematically. The findings indicate that digital technology has transformed parent–child communication into a hybrid pattern in which digitally mediated and face-to-face interaction coexist. Digital communication increases accessibility, facilitates rapid information exchange, supports everyday coordination, and enables family members to remain connected across physical distance. At the same time, device-related distraction, divided attention, interruptions, and predominantly functional exchanges can limit sustained interpersonal interaction. The findings further indicate that communication quality is shaped not simply by the frequency of technology use but by responsiveness, attention, emotional connection, reciprocity, and the fit between the communication medium and the communicative purpose. Parents and children may also interpret the same technology-mediated practices differently, particularly in relation to monitoring, availability, and device-related boundaries. The study argues that digital technology does not inherently strengthen or weaken parent–child communication; rather, it reconfigures the conditions under which family communication takes place. Digital and face-to-face communication consequently function as complementary but distinct modes of contemporary family interaction.
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