The newest street corners, arcades, and malls that serve as teen hangouts can be found right within the walls of the homestead. They are electronic mockups of the real thing -- accessed easily by the family's modem-equipped computer. For many adolescents these cyberspace hangouts are no less treasured or real than the "real" thing.

What draws adolescents to the world of the internet? What are the benefits and dangers of their exploring this new realm that may very well become a cornerstone of the new millennium into which they will grow as adults?

To answer these questions, let's first consider some of the underlying, interlocking needs and motives of the adolescent. None of this is new or earth-shattering information. Psychologists and parents have known this stuff for quite a long time. However, these basic and familiar principles can be very comforting tools for understanding why adolescents do what they do in this seemingly exotic and strange land called cyberspace:

Identity experimentation and exploration -- Adolescents are grappling with who they are. Actually, we all are -- it's a lifelong process -- but for adolescents on the verge of leaving home and establishing their own life, it's a particularly intense issue. What kind of person am I? What do I want to do with my life? What kind of relationships do I want? These are heavy-duty questions... and some of the answers can be found in cyberspace.

Intimacy and belonging -- During adolescence, humans experiment intensely with new intimate relationships, especially opposite sex relationships. They look for comrades and new groups where they can feel a sense of belonging. All these relationships become a big part of exploring one's own identity. On the internet, there is an almost limitless array of people and groups to interact with -- all kinds of people and groups with all kinds of personalities, backgrounds, values, and interests.

Separation from parents and family -- The adolescents' search for their own identity, relationships, and groups goes hand-in-hand with their drive to separate from their parents. They want to be independent, to do their own thing. It's an exciting process, and the internet is an exciting place to fulfill those needs of a pioneering, adventurous spirit -- especially when your parents know almost nothing about the internet! On the other hand, adolescents also are a bit scared about the whole separation/individuation thing. After all, relying on Mom, Dad and the old homestead does have some advantages. The fascinating thing about the internet -- and perhaps one of the reasons why it is so enticing to some adolescents -- is that it neatly takes care of this ambivalence. Want to meet new people, do exciting things, explore the world? Want to stay home too? You can do both, simultaneously, on the internet.

Venting frustrations -- An old theory about adolescence proclaimed that it is a period of "storm and stress." That theory may be a bit melodramatic, but the teen years certainly can be a difficult and frustrating period of life. The pressures of school, family, friends. What do you do with all those frustrations -- especially those sexual and aggressive ones that hormonal surges like to heighten? You need to vent it somewhere.... Welcome to the anonymous, easy to duck-in-and-out world of cyberspace!

Now that we have reviewed some of the things that makes adolescents tick, let's discuss some of the places where they like to hang out on the internet. I'll break the rather complex world of cyberspace into four basic categories:

Web pages -- By this I mean documents or collections of documents that adolescents can read. It might be a short one-page description of a rock star, other teens' home pages in which they describe themselves, an article about the French revolution, or an entire online book. Web pages may also include pictures, video clips, sounds, and music. Web pages are, essentially, a vast multimedia online library covering almost any topic you can imagine.

Email dyads and groups -- Email is one of the most easy to use, flexible, and powerful means to communicate. It's more than just an electronic letter launched through the internet. Rapid email exchanges are more like a conversation. Subtle and complex relationships can form through frequent email interactions. The email itself becomes a psychological "space" in which the adolescents live together. Email within a couple can create a very intimate, emotional relationship. Groups of people also can communicate with each other through email lists, also known as "listservs." For some people, the attractive feature of email communication is that you can't see or hear the other person. This may make the relationship feel somewhat ambiguous and anonymous.

Chat rooms and MUDs -- These also are a favorite for many teens. In a chat room, the adolescents communicate with each other in "real time." In other words, everyone in the group is sitting at their computer at the same time, typing messages to each other that scroll down the screen. Everyone can see the messages as people "talk" to the group, although it's also possible to send a private message to another person that the group can't see. In the multimedia chat environments, the text conversations occur in a visual room and the participants use tiny visual icons called "avatars" to represent themselves. Some adolescents like to present themselves in an imaginative way, by changing their name, age, identity, or even their gender. Some chat environments (e.g., MUDs) become a very intricate fantasy world where adolescents create all sorts of imaginative roles and scenarios. It's like a living novel complete with characters and plots, or a very elaborate Halloween party with its own idiosyncratic rules and culture. As with email, not being able to see or hear the other person makes chat a rather ambiguous and anonymous mode of communication -- especially since other people may not even know your real name, but just your username, which can be any imaginative name you choose.

Newsgroups -- Sometimes called by a variety of other names ("forums," "discussion groups," etc.), a newsgroup is like an electronic bulletin board. People connect to a specific site on the internet and post messages to each other. Unlike chat, this is not a real-time conversation. Whenever you want, you can go to the site and read the messages that others have written. Each newsgroup usually is devoted to a specific topic of discussion. Usenet, the original home of the newsgroup, contains tens of thousands of groups devoted to almost any topic you can imagine. Some of these groups are the homes-away-from-home for many teens. Some web sites also use this "bulletin board" format. Once again, as with email and chat, newsgroup posts can be a very anonymous style of communicating.

Video-conferencing is another newer feature of cyberspace. Using a video camera and microphone, people can see and hear each other as they talk. However, the expense and variety of technical problems associated with high quality video-conferencing makes it a much less common form of communication for adolescents. Usually, only more hardcore computer techies are up to the challenge. My guess, too, is that it's not as much fun for the adolescent as the more anonymous and/or fantasy-based modes of hanging out in cyberspace.

09/22/98

John Suler, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Rider University and a practicing clinical psychologist. He has published on psychotherapy, mental imagery, and eastern philosophy. He currently maintains several web sites -- including "Teaching Clinical Psychology" and "The Psychology of Cyberspace".