Whether extended families are less important than the past?

Why extended families have been reduced these days? While there were a lot of such families in the past, with the passage of time they become smaller and smaller. Actually, extended family lost lots of its functions nowadays; it provides people more security in the past, and maybe was the first and foremost relationships which made it the most important social network. Moreover, it provides more support for people in many aspects of life.

People had been inevitable in the past to provide themselves more security by living in large groups which had common interests; through this way they could protect themselves from physical, social and economic threads. For example they could defend themselves against enemies which attacked them. Another benefit of living in such families was economic concerns; for instance people can guarantee their comfort in oldness by creating and retention of such families. However, nowadays governments provide the essential security for the people and they no more needs each other.

People needs support and someone to trust. In the past the most reliable ones for individuals was their family; although nowadays it is the same situation, however social development provides people with banks, governmental financial supports and other organizations which supports people in different ways.

Families in the past was the most important social networks; one of the main reasons was the lack of communication technologies. Nowadays people can join a lot of social groups and find a lot of intimate friends which are much better and useful than extended family members. For instance virtual social networks like Facebook makes it possible for people to find new friends, connect with them and share their life with each other.

To sum up, the main reason that compared with the past, extended families have less important in this era, is that people needs extended families less than the past, because it lost it functions like providing security, support and intimate environment.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a dorm mother and a resident

Hi Yusefn, I thought your essay was pretty good. You addressed the topic pretty well, but your topic sentences should more directly answer the prompt. Your writing was generally pretty clear, but you had quite a few errors in your verb conjugations and singular/plural consistency. Overall, I would rate this a 3.5 out of 5.

thank you.

with great respects