• Anam Fatma
• Fazal Ahmad

Abstract Digital media has become part of everyday family life. Parents use smartphones and social media to communicate with relatives, document family experiences and share information about their children. At the same time, phones can also interrupt face-to-face interaction when family members give more attention to their devices than to the people around them. Two practices that reflect these changes are sharenting and phubbing. Sharenting refers to parents sharing information, photographs or videos of their children online. Phubbing refers to ignoring or giving less attention to someone who is physically present because of phone use. Although both practices have received growing academic attention, they are usually studied separately. Research on sharenting has mainly focused on children's privacy, safety, digital identity and parental motivations. Research on phubbing has focused more on relationship satisfaction, loneliness, psychological well-being and smartphone use. The family as a whole has received less attention, particularly in relation to how these two practices may exist together. This paper reviews existing literature on sharenting, phubbing and digital family life and brings the two areas together from a sociological perspective. It also considers the Indian family context, where digital media is increasingly part of family communication but where intergenerational relationships and collective family practices continue to be important. The paper argues that sharenting and phubbing are different behaviours, but both raise questions about privacy, attention, presence and family boundaries. Understanding these practices together can help explain how families are adjusting to the growing role of digital media in everyday life. The paper concludes by identifying areas where further research is needed, especially research that considers the experiences of parents, children and other family members together.

Keywords: digital media, family life, family communication, phubbing, sharenting

"Digital Media and Contemporary Family Life: A Critical Review of Sharenting and Phubbing", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 9, page no.d404-d414, September-2026, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2609339.pdf

"Digital Media and Contemporary Family Life: A Critical Review of Sharenting and Phubbing", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 9, page no. ppd404-d414, September-2026, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2609339.pdf