By Jack BeresfordShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA young boy heading off to school was stopped in his tracks by the sound of an unexpected voice saying three important words.
Donny, from Yorkville, Illinois, shared footage captured on his Ring doorbell camera of his three-year-old son Donny Jr.’s stunned response to hearing the voice.
The voice in question was that of his dad, offering three key words of advice before he left for the day: “Be good, boy.”
In the resulting video, which Ring shared with Newsweek, Donny Jr. stops and turns back towards the camera, telling his dad “okay.” Even so, he can barely believe what he is hearing.
“Are you on the bell?!” he asks. “Yes,” his dad replies. “Why are you on the bell again, daddy?!” Donny Jr. then asks. His dad reiterates what he said earlier, telling him: “Be good. You want to go to work with me later?”
Donny Jr. confirms he would like to go to work with his dad. “I’ll see you in a little bit,” his dad says in response. “Love you.”
“My 3-year-old son Donny Jr. loves ringing our Ring doorbell before and after school, so I decided to surprise him using the Two-Way Talk feature,” Donny told Ring.
“He was so caught off guard, he couldn’t ring it like usual! We use the Two-Way Talk feature all the time, which is why he said ‘again’ and made the moment even funnier and sweeter.”
It’s a sweet moment and one that serves as a prime example of the way mobile and internet technology has helped bring and keep families together.
Though the role of the internet in family life is a complex one, research suggests it can be a valuable communication tool when it comes to ensuring relatives regularly engage with one another.
In 2019, a study published in the journal Social Sciences saw middle-aged parents and their emerging adult children interviewed about their use of technology in communicating with one another.
Both groups acknowledged the role technology now plays in communicating with one another, regardless of geography.
The conclusion was that technology played a “multifarious” role in family life, helping people communicate more effectively with relatives on a day-to-day basis and also in scenarios where families were geographically separated.
Donny’s video is a prime example of that communication in action. Having access to the internet and a phone allowed Donny to be present at a key moment in his son’s day. It was a presence that clearly had a positive impact on his son, as his reaction on the video shows.
“When I watched the video back, it was so heartfelt that I knew I had to share it,” he said. “It’s a real, honest dad-and-son moment captured perfectly by our Ring front door camera.”
This isn’t the first example of a Ring device keeping families together.
One dad serving with the military overseas previously revealed how his kids used the Ring doorbell camera to keep him updated on their day-to-day lives.
Another dad described being “overwhelmed with joy” after realizing he could use a Ring device to stay in touch with his kids while he is away with work.
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