There’s a fantasy that replays in my head. It’s of my husband’s BlackBerry sailing across the air. As he watches in horror, I stand remorseless, delighted at the loud shattering of the expensive screen on that hand-held wireless pest.

I imagine myself jumping up and down on the parts that don’t break easily, grinding the guts of it under my heel with the determination of someone who has had too many family meals and conversations interrupted by the buzz of an e-mail or text report.

My husband has a fantasy, too. It’s of having a wife who will actually remember to keep her cell phone charged and to carry it with her, so that he can reach her at the grocery store to say we’re out of the olive oil he needs for a recipe. He dreams of being able to get an reply to the simple text info questions he vainly tries sending (What instance is the school meeting?) to a wife who takes 20 minutes to remember how to get her cell phone keypad to type numbers.

I thought of our separate fantasies for how family life should unfold in the digital era as I digested the results of a nationwide survey on how families view the impact of the Net and cellphones on their daily lives.

After studies said that the Net and other technology isolate public from each other, the Pew World Wide Web & American Life Project conducted a survey to see whether society agreed.

They didn’t. Most said that cellphones and computers have allowed them to stay far more connected with their spouses and children on busy workdays. Seventy percent of married couples who both owned a cell phone reported contacting each other once a day or more to say hello or chat, while only 54 percent of couples who have…

[Source] dhiram