Parent–child role reversal in ICT domestication: media brokering activities and emotional labours of Chinese “study mothers” in Singapore

Abstract

The adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the domestic sphere has the potential to challenge the existing power hierarchy and relational structure of the household. In particular, new dynamics of parent–child relationship may emerge due to different accessibility to, experiences of, as well as values about ICTs between adolescents and their parents. Becoming proficient with a variety of ICTs since an early age, adolescent children in many contemporary families serve as technological experts on whom their parents rely to access and survive the digital world. This “role reversal” between parents and children indicates the detraditionalization of parental authority and parent–child interactions, which could strengthen family cohesion in some households, while triggering tensions and conflicts in others. Drawing on technology domestication theory and theory of emotion work, this article proposes an in-depth investigation into the multi-dimensional technological role-reversal activities of Chinese “study mothers” and their children, with special focus on subjective attitudes and invisible emotional labours of both mothers and children. An innovative “content-context diary” cum participant observation was employed to obtain a comprehensive and profound understanding of parent–child interactions in the process of household ICT domestication.