O uso das salas de bate-papo na internet: um estudo exploratório acerca das motivações, hábitos e atitudes dos adolescentes

The present study aims at investigating adolescents’ motivations, habits and attitudes in the use of internet chatrooms. 128 São Paulo High School and University students answered a specially devised questionnaire. Results showed no significant gender differences concerning the reasons for using chatrooms. The most frequent motivations were “having fun” and “meeting people”. More female subjects admitted to relying on ficticious characters when interacting in chatrooms, while more male subjects considered it easier to disclose personal matters in chatrooms than in face-to-face interactions (they seem to feel more protected in the virtual space). Most participants tended not to use chatrooms in order to solve personal problems, although one fourth of the sample recognized that the chats contributed to learning about oneself. As a conclusion, chatrooms are mainly seen as an environment for having fun, unable to foster a significantly different type of communication from the one(s) established in face-to-face interactions.   Keywords: internet; communication; adolescence