Passage One
As the first generations grow up in a wired world, teenagers hardly know a time when computers weren't around, and they leap at the chance to spend hours online, chatting with friends and searching the web for their interested topics. So what?
But researchers nationwide are increasingly concerned that teenagers are becoming more isolated, less skillful at interpersonal relationships, and perhaps numb to the small-or-big cheating that is so much a part of the e-mail world. Researchers are asking just how the futures of teenagers are changed when so many of them are spending hours on the Internet each day, replacing face-to-face contact with computer contact.
Teens, who used computers even just a few hours a week, showed increased signs of loneliness and social isolation. These teens have fewer friends to hang around with, possibly because their computer time has replaced the hours they would have spent with others. They don't see anything strange in the fact that the computer screen occupies a central place in their social lives. They think school is stressful and busy. There's almost no time to just hang out. Talking online is just catch-up time.
Many teens acknowledge there's an unreal quality to their cyberspace . communication, including their odd shorthand terms, such as POS (parent over shoulder) or LOL (laughing out loud). This code is considered as part of the exclusive shared language that teenagers love. When it comes to e-mail exchanges, teens also show a remarkable tolerance for each other’s excuses or tricks. Nor are they surprised when a mere acquaintance unloads a personal secret through e-mail. Nobody seems to expect the online world to be the same as the real world.
Teens say they also appreciate the ability to edit what they say online, or take the time to think about a response. As cowardly as it may seem, some teens admit1 that asking someone for a date, or breaking up, can be easier in message form. But they insist there's no harm intended, and cyberspace has become just another medium, like the telephone, in the world of teenagers.
Questions 1-5 are based on Passage One.
Researchers are worrying about the futures of teenagers, because _____.
