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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Work-Family Border Styles and Mobile Technology

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Technological innovations and particularly mobile technology have many, complex implications for social life. All in all, mobile technology creates a paradox for employed parents: mobile phones enable better coordination and lower parents’ anxiety over family routines, yet the use of mobile technology increases the need for multitasking and increases the emotional burden of managing multiple roles. It is important to identify differences between workers as not everyone is able to use the possibilities of constant connectivity. This chapter addresses two interlinked topics: first, the possibility for employed parents to occupy different social domains concurrently with mobile technology and second, how permeable the border is between work and home. The chapter uses work–family border theory as a framework for analysing these micro-mechanisms of daily life. Besides a research review, this chapter uses qualitative data (collected in 2016; n = 39) on working parents.