ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses key themes of the book by offering insights into the world of Japanese adolescents. As the hybrid term ‘adolechnic’ indicates, most Japanese youth make extensive use of communication technology. But do such technologies affect the rhythms and nature of their existence? For instance, does technological mediation enable youth to inhabit plural worlds? Does it bear on their socialization? And what insights might adolescent cell phone use shed on media theory? Here, answers emerge by examining matters of privatization, space, globalization, popular culture, subculture and social interaction.
