Abstract
This article examines the place and value of online relationships and interactions in Internet users' everyday lives. The analysis is based on an in-depth study of the practices of 21 domestic users of the Internet in Vancouver, Canada, focusing on their engagement with electronic forums. The main questions are: Why do users participate in these forums? What does it mean to them? How does it reflect on the public understanding of the Internet? The article offers a typology of different forms of online involvement with others on the Internet. In this light, it questions concepts, such as `virtual community,' and dichotomies - real versus virtual, public versus private - framing the theoretical debate about the social significance of the Internet as a new communication medium.
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