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168 Heather A. HorstBox 4.2 The Miller Family: A Portrait of a Silicon Valley FamilyHeather A. HorstThe Miller family lives in a leafy-green suburb of Silicon Valley in a fourbedroomhome with a yard, dog, and basketball hoop at the bottom of thedriveway. Like other middle-class professional parents in this study, Eli andMiriam Miller work in the technology industry and view themselves as theproducers of software, code, and other systems that fuel the literal and figurativeengine of the Silicon Valley economy. This close relationship with technologyand the technology industry shapes the ways that families such as theMillers think about, use, and imagine the possibilities of technology anddigital media.In the construction of their family identity, the Millers decided to developa family website that includes photographs, descriptions of family vacations(their “trip log”), as well as details about key family events, such as birthdayparties, anniversaries, graduations, and bat and bar mitzvahs for their threechildren. The front page of the family website consists of the beaming familygathered in the water in wet suits around a dolphin after a recent visit toSeaWorld, Mom and Dad on the left of the dolphin and the three kids gatheredin birth order on the right. Each family member created a funny quote typedin different-colored ink next to his or her picture—Dad typed “I think I mightbe touching something I shouldn’t be” above his head; Iraina wrote, “I havesalt watter in my mouth!!! Can we PLEESE gett this over with?”; and Jonathancommented, “I feel like a dork in this life jacket.” Originally Eli Miller, whois a consultant with training and experience in engineering, created andmaintained the site. Each of the kids has his or her own webpage, whereEli encourages them to express and explore their individual interests,which include information about the Darfur conflict, the youngest son’sdevelopment of a podcasting site called Reality, and Iraina’s recent tripto Israel.Along with creating the family website, the Millers like to mess aroundwith digital media. Iraina explained the use of new media when they are athome:My brother just got a digital video camera for his birthday; it was his big present thisyear. And I was like . . . like I was having fun with it. I always thought it’s kind of coolerin theory because for me I don’t want to actually take the time and sit down and edita whole movie because for me that’s just not worth it. I love to come up with the basicconcepts and then give people advice if they do it. . . . But to actually sit down and hearsomeone say the same words over and over and over again while you’re trying to getthe right cut would drive me crazy. I heard my dad trying to do it for my grandparentswhen we filmed them for their anniversary and we were talking about their wedding.And it was kind of a little documentary thing. Only we forgot to bring a stand that day