The youth of the internet as a sociological phenomenon: Case study of Elazig

This study is a field research that deals with investigation of the place and impacts of Internet usage in the social life of high school youths. This study is carried out from the point of view that Internet begins to form social life by making a number of both positive and negative impacts on the life of individual and society. This study is considered remarkable due to its concern with an area which not yet being dealt sufficiently with in the sociological researches. In the research, relation of some variables to the Internet usage such as family conditions, social lives, psychological conditions and physical environments of high school students in addition to general characteristics like age, gender, economic conditions, school and educational scope they attend were investigated. Field study was based on 408 high school students in Elazığ city centre. A questionnaire, which contains 51 questions, was applied to informants. Gathered data were analyzed by being supported also with some observational data. In the end of the research it is confirmed that variables studied have influence upon individual, social and family problems of high school youths rising out of their Internet usage and the formation of their assessments on the Internet. As a conclusion, it has been clearly seen that Internet has many advantages as well as negative impacts altogether and also seen the fact that Internet has an unavoidable place in our social life. Key Words: Knowledge Society, Informatics, Internet, Internet Youth, Virtual World, Virtual Relation, Virtual Society, Virtual Conversation (Chat), Cyber Space.