A Lifetime of Relationships Mediated by Technology

Although recent technological developments have made transportation and communication faster, more efficient, and more accessible, relationship theorists and researchers have been slow to adapt. This chapter outlines a synthetic dynamic framework for the study of a lifetime of relationships mediated by technology, which integrates theories of individual development, life course, family development, and network change. Although this framework could be used to generate questions about the effects of any type of technology on social relationships, because communication via the Internet has become common and has already contributed dramatically to the reduction of geographic constraints on relationships, we illustrate the use of this framework by generating questions about its effects