Philosophers and historians considered society as the expanded family in the middle of the 19th century. The current state of the institution of the family is characterised by various parameters. The electronisation of the modern information society makes it possible for folklore to be easily shared among Internet users. Many of the crisis processes that are observed now in the family are the continuation of tendencies formed in those years when the family was the unique intermediary between the individual and society. Research testifies to this. Social, political and economic change in Russia in the past and at present make the study of the family especially interesting. Folklore available on the Internet, because of its small forms is convenient for sociological analysis. It provides anthropologists, culturologists and sociologists with additional data as other sources provide only fragments of statistics.