Skip to main content
Log in

Exploring Identities Through the Internet: Youth Experiences Online

  • Published:
Child and Youth Care Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

How do youth experience their online interactions? This article presents youth voices talking about their online experiences and how they perceive these interactions to have influenced their lives highlighting three themes: the notion of “wowness” experiences of freedom, power, and connectedness; and expanding notions of self and identities. It explores how parameters of the Internet (anonymity, interactivity, and connectivity) assist in enabling powerful relations and interactions that benefit some youth very positively. Virtual interactions and online spaces are seen as further sites of interaction in which youth can explore their identities and sense of themselves.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (1997). The power of identity. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chu, J. (1997). Navigating the media environment: how youth claim a place through zines. Social Justice, 24 (3), 71–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design. Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Kerckhove, D. (1995). Connected intelligence. The arrival of the web society. Toronto: Somerville House Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denzin, N. (1997). Interpretive ethnography. Ethnographic practices of the 21st century. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Egan, J. (2000, December 10). <Gay. 15 and Out>The Internet was supposed to change everything. For gay kids, it really has. The New York Times Magazine, 6, 110–117, 128- 131. Http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/Alerts/Current/magazine. html [Online version: January 28, 2002]

    Google Scholar 

  • Environics Research Group. (March, 2000). Young canadians in a wired world: The parents' view. Http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/sf05376e.html [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Environics Research Group. (July, 2000). Young Canadians in a wired world. Parents and youth focus groups in Toronto and Montreal. Http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ sf05380e.html [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Gergen, K. (1991). The saturated self. Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. USA: Basic Books, HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, R., Daiute, C., Iltus, S., Kritt, D., Rome, M. & Sabo, K. (1997). Developmental theory and children's participation in community organizations. Social Justice, 24 (3), 33–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hetherington, K. (1998). Vanloads of uproarious humanity. New age travellers and the utopics of the countryside. In Skelton, T. & Valentine, G. (Eds.), Cool places. Geographies of youth cultures (pp. 328–342). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillis, K. (1999). Digital sensations. Space, identity, and embodiment in virtual reality. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, M. & Leseho, J. (1996). Changing metaphors of the self: implications for conselling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 74, pp. 243–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, S. (1999). Doing internet research. Critical issues and methods for examining the net. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiesler, S., Kraut, R., Lundmark, V. Patterson, M., Mukopadhyay, T. & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist, 53 (9), pp. 1017–1031. Http:// www.apa.org/journals/amp/amp5391017.html [Online: January 28, 2002]

    Google Scholar 

  • Maczewski, M. (1999). Interplay of online and onground realities: internet research on youth experiences online. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Http://web.uvic.ca/ mecht/webthesis.htm [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Markham, A. (1998). Life online: researching real experience in virtual space. London: Altamira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media and the extensions of man. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Media Awareness Network (1999). Computers and the internet. Compilation of multiple statistical sources on internet use. Http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/issues/ stats/usenet.htm—Internet Growth [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Melucci, A. (1996). The playing self. Cambridge: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Brien, J. (1999). Writing in the body: gender (re)production in online interaction. In Smith, M. & Kollock, P. (Eds.), Communities in cyberspace (pp. 76–106). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pew Internet and American Life Project. (June, 2001). Life online: The rise of the instant message generation and the internets' impact on friendships and family relationships. Http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=36 [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Postmes, T., Spears, R. & Wolbert, A. (November, 2000). Social psychological influence of ICT's on society and their policy implications. Infodrome: Netherlands. Http:// www.infodrome.nl/publicaties/domeinen/03_spears.html [Online: January 28, 2002]

    Google Scholar 

  • Ronfeldt, D. & Thorup, C. (1994). NGO's, civil society networks, and the future of North America. In Dobell, D. & Neufeld, M. (Eds.), Transborder citizens. Networks and new institutions in North America, pp. 21–39. Lantzville, B.C. Canada: Oolichan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spradley, J. (1979). The ethnographic interview. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, A.R. (1993). Violation and virtuality: two cases of physical and psychological boundary transgression and their implications. Http://sandystone.com/violationand-virtuality [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Suler, J. (2000). Identity management in cyberspace. Http://www.rider.edu/users/ suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing up digital. The rise of the net generation. San Francisco: McGraw-Hill. Http://www.growingupdigital.com [Online: January 28, 2002]

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, J. (1993). Critical ethnography. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen. New York: Touchstone, Simon and Schuster, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, S. (1986). Post-modern ethnography: from document of the occult to occult document. In Clifford, J. & Geerts, C. (Eds.), Writing culture (pp. 122–140). Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • UCLA Center for Communication Policy. (2000 and 2001). Surveying the digital future. TheUCLA internet report. Http://ccp.ucla.edu/index.asp [Online: January 28, 2002]

  • Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the field. On writing ethnography. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • YTV. (1999). YTV Kid and Tween Report, Wave 5. Http://www.newswire.ca/releases/ November1999/29/c8506.html [Online: January 28, 2002]

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Maczewski, M. Exploring Identities Through the Internet: Youth Experiences Online. Child & Youth Care Forum 31, 111–129 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015322602597

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015322602597

Navigation