"Who Me? A Cybertee" Implications Of Internet Usage On Realities And Identities Of Malaysian Adolescents

Latifah Pawanteh & Samsudin A. Rahimi
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University Malaysia)

The daily realities of media savvy Malaysian youths are an integration of on-line and off-line relationships, events, information, memberships, chats and online shopping. Once they get into the Net there is not one single day when they are disconnected from their cyberspace realities. If they are not on-line then someone else is. Or, they get relooped into the conversation or circle of events the next time they log on. It is an interesting phenomenon of connectedness that is a blend of real and virtual. This paper examines the Internet usage pattern of Malaysian adolescents based on a survey of 1,404 adolescents between the ages of 13-16 and focus group discussions.