UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- In our lifetime, we’ve seen an incredible surge in communications technology, leading to tremendous changes in how we connect with one another. Ninety-one percent of American adults own a cell phone, and teens spend an average of nine hours a day using social media ranging from Facebook to music.

To discuss the implications of increases in technology use on relationships and family dynamics, the 2017 National Symposium on Family Issues presents “Families and Technology,” which will be held Oct. 23-24 at the Nittany Lion Inn.

The focus of the conference is addressing how the rapid changes in technology are both positively and negatively influencing families and family life. Facebook had 1.86 billion active monthly users worldwide at of the end of 2016, and this number will only keep climbing. “With technology evolving so rapidly and the time spent using such technology continuing to grow, we need to evaluate how this technology affects relationships and how families form and are maintained,” said Jennifer Van Hook, professor of sociology and demography and symposium organizer.

Symposium sessions will explore the role technology has in dating and forming romantic relationships, how it has influenced parenting, and how familial relationships are being changed by the increased use of technology.

For more information on the conference and to register, visit the Symposium webpage.

The Family Symposium series is funded in part by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and sponsored by Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute, Population Research Institute and the Child Study Center, as well as Penn State’s departments of Sociology, Human Development and Family Studies, and Psychology.