KATHERINE M. HERTLEIN University of Nevada, Las Vegas Digital Dwelling: Technology in Couple and Family Relationships We are in an unprecedented age of technology. Few articles in family journals address online behavior, intimacy patterns, and influences on the ways couples and families communicate through technology. The purpose of this article is to use a multitheoretical model to describe the process of how technologies are affecting couple and family life. Suggestions for future research and applications are presented. The last generation has seen an unprecedented increase in the use of technology in everyday life. In 2010, 170 million personal computers were projected to be sold worldwide, with a 69% increase in sales expected in the United States from 2010 to 2014 (Computer Industry Almanac, 2010). In 2010, 72% of U.S. citizens over the age of 3 used the Internet. Approximately 58% of married couples with children live in households with two or more computers; 89% of these households have more than one cell phone, and nearly 60% of children in these homes ages 7 to 17 have their own cell phones (Kennedy, Smith, Well, & Wellman, 2008). In fact, a quarter of American homes have a cell phone in lieu of a landline phone (Blumberg & Luke, 2009), and mobile-phone-facilitated communication is the predominant method of communicating with one’s social network (Hampton, Sessions, Her, & Rainie, 2009). Video games have also become Marriage and Family Therapy Program, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Pkwy., Box 453045, Las Vegas, NV 89154-3045 (katherine.hertlein@unlv.edu). Key Words: couples, families, Internet, technology. popular, with 20% of people gaming through social networking sites and nearly three quarters of households having members participating in computer video gaming (NPD Group, 2010). With each person in the United States spending an estimated 75 hours as consumers of gaming media in 2006, gaming revenues are expected to exceed $12 billion in 2011, an increase of 38.1% from 2006 (Anderson, 2007). The prevalence of Internet-based technologies in daily life is profound. Despite the prevalence of emergent media, the theoretical explanations for online behavior, inti- macy patterns, and the effects of technology on communication are generally found in nonfam- ily journals. Seventy-nine articles of over 11,000 (0.0063%) published in couple and family ther- apy journals between 1996 and 2010 were ded- icated to technology issues (Blumer, Hertlein, Smith, & Allen, 2012). Instead, such publica- tions are found across a variety of disciplines and journals that may not be accessed routinely by couple and family scholars. Further, the the- ories published often have limited application to couples and families. For example, the hyperper- sonal computer-mediated communication theory (Rabby & Walther, 2002) describes how com- puter communication creates a significant level of intimacy in relationships, but stops short of discussing the meaning of intimacy in the family’s daily life. Likewise, social penetration theory (Altman & Taylor, 1973) has been applied to the reciprocal process of self-disclosure in computer-mediated relationships (Yum & Hara, 2006), but the authors have not discussed impli- cations for social and familial networks. Such 374 Family Relations 61 (July 2012): 374 – 387 DOI:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00702.x