This study explores how women in two devout religious communities cope with the Internet and its apparent incompatibility with their communities' values and practices. Questionnaires containing both closed and open-ended questions were completed by 82 participants, approximately half from each community. While their discourses included similar framings of danger and threat, the two groups manifested different patterns of Internet use (and nonuse). Rigorous adherence to religious dictates is greatly admired in these communities, and the women take pride in manipulating their status in them. Their agency is reflected in how they negotiate the tension inherent in their roles as both gatekeepers and agents-of-change, which are analyzed as valuable currencies in their cultural and religious markets.

In light of the complex life experience of gay male youth and due to the crucial role the traditional mass media play in this experience, scholars and activists have devoted much attention to the liberating potential of the Internet. This potential, among other merits, finds expression in one of the most prominent on-line applications -newsgroups. The study examines Internet newsgroups as a potential mitigating tool in the complex coming-out process of gay male youth. Employing a qualitative discourse analysis of the messages, the research focuses on Ga'ave Tseira ("Young Pride"), an Israeli newsgroup that appeals to GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) youth and operates under the Tapuz portal. Findings indicate that the newsgroup functions as a social arena that offers its participants an embracing milieu, where for the first time in their lives they are free of moral judgment of their sexuality. Through four distinct yet interrelated ways, the newsgroup helps its participants to cope with one of the most significant milestones in a gay person's life -the coming-out process: (1) refuting prevalent stereotypes of homosexuality; (2) facilitating the acceptance of one's sexual orientation; (3) prompting its disclosure; and (4) creating social relations within and outside the virtual environment.

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In this article I explore use patterns and perceptions of cellphone and smartphone use among Old Order Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women with participant observations, interviews, and a survey. My findings show that although they differ in their cellphone use (the Amish mostly do not use them and the Ultra-Orthodox only use those deemed to be "kosher"), they concur in their nonuse of smartphonesthey see the smartphone as impure. Both view smartphones as undermining social relations and community by distracting users away from friends and family.

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