Department of Communication, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
With the advent of home-centred leisure, young people's leisure has become home centred and an important time in the lives of families. In the past, not leisure but education was very valuable for the families because children were occupied to acquire adult's responsibilities for the future. Parents are giving much more importance to their offspring's leisure time which is considered as a learning potential; a typical example, in the age of leisure times mixed with learning, is the internet. Since in Turkey there is not much research on the internet and youths, this paper will firstly analyze the concept of changing leisure time and the effects on Turkish young people. Secondly, with an empirical study which consists of a series of open ended individual interviews conducted with 40 university students in their homes sharing their internet experiences, it will attempt to understand how and for which purposes Turkish youth use internet. Finally, this study seeks to understand how important the internet is for young people's leisure which can be considered as a provider of space to experiment with identity and to develop social relations.
