Online Chat Rooms: Virtual Spaces of Interaction for Socially Oriented People R. PERIS, Ph.D., M.A. GIMENO, B.A., D. PINAZO, Ph.D., G. ORTET, Ph.D., V. CARRERO, Ph.D., M. SANCHIZ, Ph.D., and I. IBÁÑEZ, Ph.D. ABSTRACT The internet has opened a new social space for communication. The present work studies in- terpersonal relationships in cyberspace using the chat channel as an interaction medium. Data obtained have outlined the sociodemographic and personality profile of internet users who engage in online chats as well as group self-perception, chatters’ use habits, motivations to interact online, and the chatters’ network of virtual and face-to-face relationships. Results suggests that relationships developed online are healthy and a complement to face-to-face re- lationships. These data are confirmed by personality studies. The theoretical and method- ological implications of data are discussed. 43 CYBERPSYCHOLOGY &BEHAVIOR Volume 5, Number 1, 2002 © Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. INTRODUCTION T HE INTRODUCTION of new communication technologies in daily life has yielded new social practices. Cyberspace has become a new meeting point in which time/space bound- aries are blurred, and interaction prevails over linearity in communication processes. The in- ternet, cyberspace par excellence , has become a social technology 1,2 that allows people to meet their individual and social needs. 3–5 When people have more social contact, they are happier and healthier both physically and mentally. 6 Individuals seek to begin and main- tain interpersonal relationships usually face to face. Cyberspace and its relational possibilities are changing the way satisfactory relation- ships are conceived even among people who have never met physically. As Del Brutto 7 has pointed out, entering of the internet in the pri- vate sphere has represented a revolution in users’ lives. Internet relay chat (IRC) is one of the origins of this change. IRC is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network that allows people all over the internet to talk to one an- other in real time (with no physical or visual contact) on a text-mediated basis. Although re- lationships developed through the internet have been described as typical of the bored and the lonely, the body of evidence points mainly to the contrary. 8 Interpersonal studies tend to conclude that face-to-face relationships are the richest from the communication viewpoint and that all other forms of relationships are of a more lim- ited nature in comparison. This bias has pre- vented a fair assessment of any other types of relationships, which may be different, better, or worse. 8–10 Online chat relationships provide new opportunities for social contacts; unfortu- nately, this new realm has not received the at- tention deserved yet. Online chat rooms are a meeting point that allows people to communicate with other This article was translated into English by Amparo Jimenez-Ivars (Jaume I University of Castellon, Castellon, Spain). Department of Psychology, Jaume I University of Castellon, 12080 Castellon, Spain.