ABSTRACT
In the world of youth culture, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have sometimes been regarded as tools of liberation and democratization and as a new social space where young people can reconfi gure their identity and the structures of authority of their social contexts. In some accounts, ICTs are conceived as spaces where visual and virtual communication becomes ‘the connecting structure’, to use Bateson’s (1972) terms, between the inner world of youth and the external world. Some young people have developed a great ability to master ICTs. In so doing they also attempt to handle the process of social change and modernity, since a command of ICTs can represent an opportunity for a better future and a chance to overcome the social constraints and categories of their social environment.
