When asked about the main attractions of using these direct dialogue features, 86% of Dependents reported anonymity, 63% accessibility, 58% security, and 37% ease of use. Young (1996) previously noted that "clear differences exist among the specific Internet applications utilized between Dependents and Non-Dependents. Non-Dependents predominantly used those aspects of the Internet which allow them to gather information and to maintain pre-existing relationships through electronic communication. However, Dependents predominantly used those aspects of the Internet which allow them to meet, socialize, and exchange ideas with new people through highly interactive mediums." Consistent with these findings, content analysis classified three major areas of reinforcement pertaining to these two way communication features: social support, sexual fulfillment, and creating a persona. Each of these will be discussed in more depth.

Social Support

Social support can be formed on the basis of a group of people who engage in regular computer-mediated communication with one another for an extended period of time. With routine visits to a particular group (i.e., a specific chat area, MUD, or news group), a high degree of familiarity among other group members is established forming a sense of community. Like all communities, the Cyberspace culture has its own set of values, standards, language, signs, and artifacts and individual users adapt to the current norms of the group. CMC creates the opportunity to disregard normal conventions about privacy (e.g., by posting personal messages to public bulletin boards), and the removal of time and space separations between work and play, office and home, all communicate and reinforce the norms associated with this subculture beyond all boundaries (Kielser et al, 1984).

Once membership into a particular group has been established, a Dependent relies upon the conversation exchange for companionship, advice, understanding, and even romance. Rheingold (1996) explained that the ways in which people use CMC always will be rooted in human needs, not hardware and software and states how "words on a screen are quite capable of moving one to laughter or tears, of evoking anger or compassion, of creating a community from a collection of strangers." The ability to create virtual communities that leave the physical world behind such that well known, fixed, and visual people no longer exist form a meeting of the minds living in a purely text-based society.

Despite that such interactions are purely text-based conversations, the exchange of words empower a deep psychological meaning as intimate bonds are quickly formed among on-line users. In Cyberspace, social convention of rules of politeness are gone, allowing personal questions about a person’s marital status, age, or weight to be asked upon an initial virtual meeting. The immediacy of such open and personal information about oneself fosters intimacy among others in the community. Upon a first meeting, an on-line user can tell a complete stranger about his personal life - leaving him feeling close. Through this immediate exchange of personal information, one can easily become involved in the life of others who they have never met - almost like watching a soap opera and thinking of the characters as real people.

As they become more involved in the virtual group, Dependents were able to take more emotional risks by voicing controversial opinions about religion, abortion, or other value laden issues. In real life, Dependents were unable to express these opinions to their closest confidants or even their spouses. However, in Cyberspace, they felt free to express such opinions without fear of rejection, confrontation, or judgment since the presence of others was less readily available and their own identities were well masked. For example, a priest who was active and well respected in his parish disagreed with aspects of the Catholic faith such as not allowing women to be priests and mandatory celibacy. Yet, he would never voice his reservations about the Catholic faith publicly to his congregation. He kept his views to himself until he discovered the "alt.recovery.catholicism" discussion group for former Catholics, where he openly voiced his opinions without fear of retribution. Beyond the airing of deep rooted feelings, the Internet allows the exchange of positive and negative feedback elicited from a quorum of other users. Those who shared his views comforted the priest, and those who challenged him provided a dialogue to debate such issues without revealing his vocation or identity.

The formation of such virtual arenas create a group dynamic of social support to answer a deep and compelling need in people whose real lives are interpersonally impoverished. In particular, life circumstances such as home bound caretakers, the disabled, retired individuals, and homemakers limit access to others. In these cases, individuals are more likely to use the Internet as an alternative to develop such social foundations that are lacking in their immediate environments. Furthermore, the need for social support may be higher in our society due to the disintegration of traditional community-based neighborhoods and the growing rate of divorce, remarriage, and relocation. Lastly, individuals with a prior history of psychiatric illness may be more reliant upon CMC to satisfy social support needs. For example, Young (1997) found that moderate to severe rates of depression co-exist with pathological Internet use. It is plausible that depressives who suffer from low self-esteem, a fear of rejection, and a higher need for approval use the Internet in order to overcome these real life interpersonal difficulties through such social community building generated through CMC.

Sexual Fulfillment

Erotic fantasies can be played out such that people can engage in novel sexual acts commonly known as Cybersex. Chat areas with titles such as "MarriedM4Affair" "The Gay Parade" "Family Time" "SubM4F" or "Swingers" are designed to encourage on-line users to engage explicitly in erotic chat. There are hundreds of sexually explicit rooms entailing submission, dominance, incest, fetishes, and homosexual fantasies. These rooms are easily available on-line, with a little experimentation of various channels to select from, an on-line user can review such titles and with a click of a button be inside one of these rooms. Furthermore, erotic handles can be created to express the type of sexual fantasy being sought such as "Ass Master" "Golden Shower" "M 4 hot phone" "daddy’s girl" or "Whips & Chains."