#maczewski

...how are multiple realities experienced and conceptualized, when they are simultaneously complemented by experiences in virtual spaces?

K. It makes me feel free, and like I’m in my own personal space which describes me. M. What makes you feel that way? K. Probably the freedom on going everywhere and learning about anything I want to and having it be available without leaving my chair…

One could surmise that when onground experiences do not allow for a young person to feel powerful, respected and accepted with all of her or his identities, the online virtual environment provides for a further life space in which young people’s interests, self and identities can be explored in interaction with others.

However, On the internet, I feel that I can explore his [my] ideas and thoughts to a fuller extent, I can write what I want and if I want to leave someone or just not want to talk to someone, I can ignore them, a nifty function that life does not have to offer. Back to my point on how I can explore who I am, through my experiances [sic] on the internet, I have found out that people tend to be more onest [sic] with what they are feeling. They tend to express their feelings and emotions in a way that I find to be very freeing. I mean, how often do people just tell you what is really on their mind and I have noticed that I tend to do the same myself. However, that sort of attitude tends to leak into my daily life more and more often. For example, today I got into a discussion on Affirmative Action with one of the more articulate speakers at my school and I pressed my case very well because I told him what I was feeling and I was very vocal on my opinion. Reality is what you make it, to me reality is both dark and ugly as well as beautiful. Who knows, that reality might not be real to anyone else, however, to me that is what it is, the internet is just another aspect of my reality and is almost as important as the “real” world. (S. 1999)

For participation online to be meaningful for Fg. and Ky. it to enhance an existing onground interest (additional free music lyrics) or offer something that was not available in their onground communities (opportunities for youth political activism with people she enjoyed).

Not only is going online convenient, it also makes K. and C. feel ‘cool’ and ‘free.’ Participants gave many more examples of such situations. They defined online space as a space of their own, where they connected with people that they felt they could really talk to and engage in similar interests with. Personal space is important for exploration of self and identities (Hart et al., 1997; Hetherington, 1998). Chu (1997), in her exploration of youth zines, describes how youth online find such a space in zines, because they are able to express themselves in ways not found for themselves in traditional media. Chu states that “zines provide young publishers a space to re-envision the power dynamics of their larger social environments” (p. 82).

As the self as a serious reality is laid to rest and the self is constructed and re-constructed in multiple contexts, one enters finally the stage of the relational self. One’s sense of individual autonomy gives way to a reality of immersed interdependence, in which it is relationships that constructs the self. (Gergen, 1991, p. 147)