I have to say that many of my students seem to be similar to Rhiannon's students. They like using IM, their phones, and email to stay in touch with people they know, most of them geographically close by. However, when I try to tell them about online communities and identity issues in MUDS, Katie.com, etc., they have the most difficult time understanding why anyone would ever do something like that, or get so involved in establishing online relationships with people they don't even know. As a matter of fact, many of my students seem to think Turkle, Markham, Baym, and others are nuts and some sort of mega nerds. I have to really establish context for them before they begin to see why people would want to spend so much time "online" (because to them, IM is not online), and grow relationships there. Interesting, isn't it? Our students are a different generation, one who grew up with technologies (and social acceptance of those), rather than having to appropriate and explore them, as we did. Ulla ************************** Ulla Bunz Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 **************************