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3 INTIMACYLead Author: C. J. Pascoe“I get out of the shower, get dressed, go to my PC, log on to MSN, and talkto Alice,” said seventeen-year-old Jesse about his typical morning routine.At that time of the day, he finds it easier to instant message on MSN thanto talk on the phone with seventeen-year-old Alice, his girlfriend. He hasto “do my hair” in the morning. “So I go back and forth, back and forth,”he said, miming his movements from the bathroom mirror to the computerin his bedroom. After logging off IM, the couple might talk on theirmobile phones as they commute to school. During the school day theytrade text messages about their whereabouts and plans, such as “Im in daband room.” 1 After school Alice might join Jesse at his house, completingher homework while he plays his favorite video game, Final Fantasy, orthey might continue to communicate by sending messages, such as “I’llbe here for a while, go to sleep, I love you.” The day frequently ends late,with Alice falling asleep talking on the phone to Jesse in the bedroom sheshares with her two younger siblings as they watch DVDs on the bottombunk. Though they have been dating for more than a year, Alice’s parents,Chinese immigrants, do not know she and Jesse, a charming young manof mixed Anglo and African-American heritage, are a couple. Their secretrelationship has been shaped and, in some ways, made possible, by theprofusion of new communication technologies.Though most teens do not carry on long-term relationships such as thisone outside the purview of their parents, Alice’s and Jesse’s use of newmedia exemplifies much of what we have heard from our participantsabout their new media use in intimate interactions. Young people are atthe forefront of developing, using, reworking, and incorporating newmedia into their dating practices in ways that might be unknown, unfamiliar,and sometimes scary to adults. In our interviews and observations,