Long-term studies monitoring the process of young people adopting new media patterns of social interaction and communication with parents and peers are needed to better understand how young people cope with perpetual peer communication, how parents and adolescents deal with intergenerational conflicts, and the outcomes of these practices and conflicts. This article focuses on the role of new technologies as agents of social change, with a particular emphasis on patterns of socializing among young people and interactions with family. (Contains 16 notes.)