ABSTRACT
In the last decade, scholars of media consumption have described adolescents’ lives as being characterized by media privatization in a multimedia environment. In Western societies young people’s cultural consumption includes a large number of media artefacts such as television sets, VCRs, landline and cell phones, play stations, compact disc players, MP3 players, and computers. This chapter investigates the association between Internet use and adolescents' sociability. After reviewing the most important arguments in the literature, it chapter presents in detail the available findings on the link between Internet use and sociability. The focus is on the association of Internet use with the consumption of other media, involvement in social activities, and time with peers. Furthermore, the chapter delves into the different aspects of the displacement hypothesis.
