Miss Jacqueline Wong, a 19-year-old girl majoring in public administration and management at the City University of Hong Kong, has been using ICQ for nine months.

     "I first entered the chat rooms out of curiosity," said she. "Besides, I want to keep in touch with friends both in Hong Kong and overseas."

     Unlike Miss Wong, Mr. Kenneth Tso, a Form 7 student at Sheung Shui Government Secondary School started online one and a half year ago for educational purposes. He wanted to practise his typing skills and improve his English proficiency.

     "Later I found that nobody cares about grammar. So I go online merely to kill time," said he.

     Apart from searching for useful information and interesting homepages, His classmate, Benedict Chan has been making use of the Internet to make friends.

     "It's easier to approach people on the Internet. When I feel like chatting, I can pick up a friend from the user's list. And if I don't want to be bothered, I can simply switch to the "invisible" mode. It's very convenient."

     Professor Cheng Chi Ho in the Department of Applied Social Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, accounts for the net-chat trend: "Young people have become more self-centered than before. They regard life as very boring. Therefore, they want to explore different kinds of excitement by making cyber friends."

     Both Mr. Chan and Mr. Tso doubt the credibility of the words used on the Internet.

     "I always wonder if they are liars. If I find they lie, I will lie, too," said Mr. Chan.

     Not only scholars in Hong Kong worry about the changing forms of interpersonal relationship. A recent study called HomeNet, conducted by a group of researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, found that "Relationships maintained over long distances, without face-to-face contacts, ultimately do not provide the kind of support and reciprocity that typically contribute to psychological security and happiness."

     Mr. Tso has never met his cyber friends. He thinks that there is no need to develop closer relationships with them.

     Said he: "Meeting cyber friends may lose the mysteriousness of their relationships."

     "More importantly, it is rather insecure to meet them face-to-face. One of my friends was robbed by his cyber friend when they first dated."

     For Miss Wong, meeting her cyber friend was not a good experience at all.

     Said she: "He was totally different from the way I knew him on the Internet. I found his tone bad. Our conversation was very awkward then. It seemed as though we were totally unfamiliar with each other."

     According to Professor Cheng, this mismatch of images in between cyberspace and reality is very common.

     He said: "The friendships of young people is very superficial nowadays. They don't think they should be responsible for what they say on the Internet.

     "Someone may claim he is so smart, kind and handsome. And this could be done merely to achieve self-contentment and immediate response."

     Said Professor Cheng: "It is indeed very difficult for young people to make real friends in cyberspace and to support each other in times of adversity." Miss Wong admitted: "When I chat with these friends, I'll be cautious so not to express so much emotions. And it is therefore I don't expect any true friends made online."

     The researchers of HomeNet reported the reduction of time of interaction computer users spent with their families and friends with increasing involvement with the Internet. Subsequently, these people may experience higher levels of depression.

     But there are exceptions. For instance, net-chatting has never brought Mr. Chan emotional problems: he is even eager to share with his family the latest information obtained online.

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