Exploring Identities through the Internet: Youth Experiences Online Youth actively using online communication today are

e developing new ways of learning, new language, and new values. Those belonging to the N-Gen (net generation) are developing social skills earlier than their parents generation (Don Tapscott, 1998) It is important to set up environment(s) in which youth had/have opportunities to feel heard within meaningful, caring, and supportive relationships which enhance youths sense of themselves in positive ways. (Hart, Daiute, Iltus, Kritt, Rome & Sabo, 1997) Parents own understanding of the Internet plays a role in their perceptions of their childrens Internet use (PEW Internet Study, 2001) Important activities for these youths were activities that connected them with other people with similar interests or ideas. Many young people receive negative messages, particularly from their family, about their time spent online, while having valid arguments for being online and good explanations for what stops them from onground activities and vice versa. Convenience, funds, mobility, friends, activities online or lack thereof onground, are reasons why young people prefer online activities over onground opportunities (Maczewski, 2002). Aside from convenience, going online is also cool and free. The participants defined online space as a space of their own, where they are 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) Youth online find such a space in zines, because they are able to express themselves in ways not found for themselves in traditional media. Zines provide young publishers a space to re-envision the power dynamics of their larger social environments (Chu, 1997). (Zine = self-published electronic magazine) Three important parameters of the internet: anonymity, connectivity, and interactivity (de Kerck-hove, 1995) allow