Our families is something that should be cherished and respected. Family as a phenomenon is something that sparked up the creation of society, the base structure of which was taken as a reference. However, as the society grew, the role of the extended family became diminished.
In the ancient times, people you could have trusted were the people with whom you share your blood. However, the more advanced we became as a species, the less invented we were in this idea of a family. There are several things, which serve as a proof to my opinion. The first one is the foster and nursing institutions. Right now, the opinion on family has shifted from blood relations to something more spiritual. The second thing is the partnerships. People put their faith not only in the blood related persons. You do not even have to look that far for the example, every company and business is based on this idea.
Now let us look on the opposite. If we think that extended family do play a big role, then how do we define family? As I have said previously, blood relations are not required to be a family anymore. With that, anybody can be our extended family. This may be our friends, partners or loved ones. What matters is their deeds towards us. This can happen in every social circle that we inhabit. If the extended family is equal to other circles, then, maybe, the extended family is not as important as it was before?
With that said, I think that our extended families do not matter as much. Their roles in society became equal to that of friends or people of your nearest social circle. That does not mean that they are completely useless, I simply state that they the extended family has lost its special meaning.