Study Finds Teenagers’ Internet Socializing Isn’t Such a Bad Thing

The second paragraph is immediately interesting as the ability to "create" a home page is part of the skill set for contemporary living. Regardless of problem solving or communication, you need to be able to pick out your fav pic and upload it to your profile. That's going to come in handy later in life. If these kids are creating html and flash pages from scratch then they should get serious kudos. Signing up for MySpace and Facebook does not count nor can you include that on a resume. Also towards the end of article the study manages to find that people look up information online and use it giving the example of using an image search to understand how to install a video card. High-five to the kid who figured that out; it does show some creativity. Did we really need a study to figure that out? I look up information on a very consistent basis as a librarian, where's my study? Librarians use information, study finds...
It is also interesting to note the redefintion of terms that occurs in this article. The idea of an intimate community is redefined by text messaging and instant messaging. Intimacy is redefined then as being accessible not on the level of communication that occurs between two or more people. Intimacy is no longer sharing or deepening relationship but intertwining superficialities based on a pirated and poor, acronymic language.
In his book Mythologies Barthes discusses signifiers of the bourgeious such as red wine. Barthes tracks how in France red wine has become a social equaliser and a thing, a myth, greater than what was simply a bottle of wine. It is the same with this study. This study cannot offer us any actual factual information about internet socializing. The use of Facebook or Myspace, and the culture and language of texting, has become a signifier of what teens do and has successfully assumed its place as asign, a mythology that now drives and informs the interactions of these individuals. This use of internet socialization has become necessary to interact with people of similar age.
All this study does is to notice and to help this  practice to become taken as given in our particular culture.