"When you can do it, why can't I?": Racial and Socioeconomic Differences in Family Technology Use and Non-Use

Abstract

There is racial diversity as well as economic inequality in the United States (U.S.). To gain a nuanced understanding of how households from different socio economic and racial backgrounds integrate technology into their lives, we conducted a diary study with 22 parents who were Asian Indian (the fastest-growing immigrant population in U.S.) and 18 who were White American (the largest racial group in U.S.) parents from the working and middle classes. The participants logged in-situ instances of using smart phones and speaker use by, with, and around children for 8 weeks, and were interviewed once every four weeks (two times in total). Our findings reveal differences and similarities in parents' attitudes and practices of using or not using these devices around and with children, in parental restrictions of children's use of technology, and children's daily use patterns. The paper concludes with a discussions of the implications of our findings and suggestions for future design improvements in smart phones and speakers.

Sink or Swim: Virtual Life Challenges among African American Families during COVID-19 Lockdown

“…This conflict can result in pandemic burnout in which family members become intolerant to each other because of prolonged episodes of sharing space and resources evidenced by the "infighting among children" as they wrestled over access and use of the available electronic gadgets. Even though debates around digital inequities and closing the digital divide are not new [51,52], these inequities were further exacerbated by the rapid changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study highlights how digital access or the lack thereof exacerbated parents' feelings of stress.…”

Parental Facilitation of Young Children's Technology-based Learning Experiences from Nondominant Groups During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In this section, we highlight digital inequalities and families' technology practices associated with socioeconomic status. Compared to children in households with more economic resources, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups on average have fewer educational and digital resources (e.g., books, computers, and Internet) in their homes [1,11,12,22,56], with primarily Spanish-speaking households experiencing the least access [30]. Specifically, television and mobile phones remain the dominant form of electronics in low-SES Latinx families for educational content [10,22].…”

“…Specifically, television and mobile phones remain the dominant form of electronics in low-SES Latinx families for educational content [10,22]. Low-SES children are found to adopt mobile devices more quickly and also at a younger age than those from higherincome groups [1,12,22]. Consequently, low-SES families share devices more often and use mobile phones to access the Internet to a greater extent than their higher-SES counterparts who usually have access to laptops and tablet devices at home [60].…”

“…Overall, researchers found that parents from low-SES families participate less in their children's educational activities (e.g., reading together) and use less educational resources than parents from high-SES households [10,15]. High-SES parents, in contrast, tend to spend more time participating in or shepherding their children's sports, school, and technology related activities, such as leveraging devices like tablets and smartphones to advance their children's language and literacy skills, hosting educational games, providing technology guidance, or leading technology-relevant activities [8,10,12,15,26]. These differences in parental involvement can be ascribed to various factors such as access to technical resources, work schedules, and interactions with school systems [1,8,11,12].…”

CUI@CSCW: Inclusive and Collaborative Child-facing Voice Technologies

“…As a consequence, lowerincome, and ethnic minorities, who may also experience lower digital literacy, are left out of consideration of newer and more innovative technology such as CUIs. As an example, families and children from low-income household and those classed as ethnic minorities are found to feel less capable of engaging voice-controlled smart devices, often due to their limited literacy in English, higher comfort in speaking in their vernacular language/dialect which are often not supported by such devices, and/or limited exposure to such devices [9,22]. Therefore, there is a need to understand the challenges in designing inclusive CUIs that accommodate and are sensitive to a wider range of personal, social, and cultural context.…”