Young People and the Use of the Internet as Transitional Space

Abstract

Mia Lövheim asks what we have learnt about the possibility of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) providing this space? When, where, how, and for whom can this become a reality? Her article discusses this issue, starting from an area of central importance to these issues: religion and young people in the process of constructing self-identity in the transition from childhood to adulthood. Studies of religion in post-modern society have shown that the function of religious beliefs, practices, and institutions in providing a transitional space for such processes is changing. Lövheim presents her recent study of young men and women using a Swedish Web community for discussing both established and alternative religious discourses, and for forging what Nancy Ammerman terms ”religious autobiographies”