Love in Cyber space

Internet has become an increasingly usual way for people to contact each other, to flirt, fall in love and start relationships. How does this development influence today’s young people with intellectual disabilities? The presentation will present a picture of the Internet experiences of some of today’s adolescents with intellectual disabilities and of the surrounding world’s view on this usage of Internet. The presentation is based on a qualitative study in which 10 young people with intellectual disabilities and 12 staff members were interviewed. The results show that young people with intellectual disabilities of today also use Internet mainly for social and love life reasons. They view Internet as a positive arena where they can be “like everybody else” and therefore they generally present themselves without mentioning their disabilities. However, their surrounding world tends to worry considerably, mainly focusing on the risks involved in this usage of Internet. The study has been published as a Swedish monography: Löfgren-Mårtenson, L. (2005) Kärlek.nu. Om Internet och unga med utvecklingsstörning [Love.now. About Internet and Young People with intellectual disabilities]. Lund, Studentlitteratur. An article in English is also in press in: Löfgren-Mårtenson, L. (2006) Love in cyberspace ­ a new social arena for people with intellectual disabilities? Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research