ABSTRACT
Is there a possibility, which Turkle identifies in relation to the computer, that interaction with machines becomes a 'safe' option for some young people experimenting with new relationships whereby the user can assert power, be in control but can avoid the complications, uncertainties and complexities involved in human contact? Furthermore, have such possibilities, together with the proliferation of technological experience within the domestic interior led to a new 'mobile privatisation' (Williams 1974) for a sample of media users (teenage boys) who are most often depicted in social theorising as being on the public side of the public/private divide?
