¶ … Life Matters" by Roger and Rebecca Merrill

Life Matters: Creating a Dynamic Balance of Work, Family, Time, and Money by Roger and Rebecca Merrill discusses various issues that concern and influence family dynamics in terms of work, time, and money. In this book, the Merrills provide their readers an insight into the interrelated relationships among four important elements in an individual's life: family, work, time, and money. Among these factors, Merrill and Merrill's discussion of the role that technology plays in influencing a changing pattern in the family structure and relationship of the 'information-age family.' Discussion about the detrimental effect of technology in the lives of families illustrate how it (technology) is used to severe and discourage further social interactions among family members, and, extensively, towards the community. This discussion also brings in the issue of work as another factor that prevents families from developing harmonious relationships with each other. This is reflected in English-Leuck's (1998) assertion about the prevalence of the social phenomenon where there occurs "colonization of home time by work." This argument stresses the conflict that happens when technology, work, and desire to earn more money starts invading the home. The interrelated relationships among these factors are illustrated in the modern-day/information age family. As more and more parents aspire to become economically successful through their work (their primary source of income), technology plays a vital role in improving work for people. Thus, in order to increase an individual's performance and productivity at work, people then tend to bring work in their home, which is made possible through computer technology. The desire to earn more and the invasion of technology at home results to lack of time for the family, whereon time management is devoted solely for the accomplishment of earning money and doing work. This illustration is one of the main points that Merrill and Merrill addresses in their book, particularly the role of time, money, and work in developing / underdeveloping family, interpersonal, and group relations in the age of information technology.

Bibliography

English-Leuck, J. (1998). Technology and Social Change: The Effects on Family and Community. The Silicon Valley Cultures Project Web site. Available at: http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/anthropology/svcp/SVCPcosa.html.

Merrill, R. And R. Merrill. (2003). Life Matters: Creating a Dynamic Balance of Work, Family, Time, and Money. NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.