The Shell Poll

Like the Cleavers, the Bradys and the Huxtables, today’s families tend to spend a lot of time together, especially around the dinner table. According to the latest findings from the Shell Poll, 50 percent of Americans say they eat dinner at home with their family almost every night while an additional 18 percent of families eat together several times a week.

Not only are families breaking bread together, they are spending time together and appear to be happy doing so. Eighty-six percent of those polled are satisfied with their relationships with family members. Sixty-three percent are "totally satisfied." In this day and age with both parents working and kids glued to their PCs, a surprising one-fifth of respondents think families are closer today than they were in their parents’ day, compared to only 7 percent who felt this way in 1971.

"Relationships appear to be thriving in this Internet age," said Susan Borches, vice president of Corporate Affairs for Shell Oil Company. "This survey certainly indicates that Americans value and enjoy spending time with family and friends. With the holiday season approaching, it’s encouraging to see a well-connected society."

Family relationships are just one of the topics covered in the seventh edition of the Shell Poll, an opinion survey conducted for Shell Oil Company by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. More than 1,000 American adults were polled.

A family that plays together, stays together. Family time is not only reserved for the dinner table. Sixty-two percent of Americans say they spend most of their leisure time with their family rather than with friends. Not surprisingly, those age 35 to 49 — who are most likely to have children — are those most likely to spend a majority of their leisure time with family (68 percent). It is worthy to note that 58 percent of those age 18 to 34 also spend most of their leisure time with family versus friends.

It’s also nice to see that Americans stay in touch with their parents once they are out of the nest. A staggering 80 percent say they call home to speak to their mothers at least once a week while 66 percent talk to their fathers as often. Moms are particularly important to single men, who are three times as likely as married men to call their mother every day (42 percent to 17 percent).

Friendsandfamily@together.com. The Internet is a standard tool in the workplace, but it’s now playing a role in other arenas as well. Sixty percent of on-line Americans feel the Internet has helped bring people closer together and 55 percent say it has actually strengthened their relationships with family and friends.

Internet use is becoming as common as turning on the television or microwave. Sixty-four percent of web users said they use the Internet daily, with 34 percent using the Internet for a few hours every day and 30 percent using it every day although not for very long. Though not surfing the web to the same extent as younger Americans, nearly one-quarter of those age 65 and over (22 percent) use the Internet at home.

There has been much talk that e-mail is the communications medium of choice, and the Shell Poll further supports this theory. Thirty-four percent of Americans exchange e-mail with friends at least "fairly often" and only 17 percent write letters to the same extent. Sixty-nine percent of frequent Internet users rely on e-mail to stay in touch with friends, whereas only 62 percent use the telephone. Of seniors who use the Internet, 79 percent do so at lest a few times a week.

Friends in the next cubicle. The majority of working Americans (53 percent) claim to have at least a few friends from their current workplace and over three-quarters (76 percent) are satisfied with relationships with their coworkers. At a time when employees are being wooed by signing bonuses, free PCs and large expense accounts, the opportunity to socialize with coworkers is perhaps the greatest perk and the greatest source of satisfaction. According to the poll, the office workplace is the single most significant source of working America’s friendships. Nearly one-quarter of employed respondents (24 percent) say that they have made a large number of friends from their current place of work, more than any other social area, including churches (38 percent), clubs and organizations (39 percent), and college (24 percent).

However, while working respondents said they have friends in the workplace, 55 percent said they spend very little time with them outside of the office.

Neighborhood watch. Two-thirds of those polled say they are satisfied with their relationships with their neighbors and more than half say they know their neighbors fairly well. In fact, a majority (54 percent) would feel "very comfortable" turning to their next-door neighbor for help in an emergency and three-quarters would feel at least "fairly comfortable."

When chatting with their neighbors, children and family are the topics most talked about (44 percent) followed by home improvement (20 percent), local issues (16 percent), weather (15 percent) and sports (9 percent).

Country vs. city. The differences between rural and urban Americans are brought to light in the Shell Poll. Seventy-four percent of rural Americans are satisfied with their neighborhood relationships, compared to 59 percent of urbanites; 66 percent of country-dwellers say they know their neighbors well, compared to 53 percent of city-dwellers.