Given Brazilian media's insistence in making public the results of foreign, mainly American, investigations that systematically point out the negative effects of the intensive use of the Internet, an in-depth research was conducted on Brazilian "heavy" users. Twenty men and women, who log on to the Net daily for at least two hours of their leisure time, were interviewed in detail. Knowledge of their habits, preferences and opinions reveals that these users are faced with a difficult dilemma. On the one hand, they do not dare criticize the negative discourse that reaches them through the media. They consider it trustworthy because of its alleged scientific bases. On the other hand, they are urged by their daily life, which has absorbed the Internet in its routine without any major problems, to give credit to their own positive experience on the Net. In order to solve the problem, they resort to strategies that distance themselves from what the media say and even disqualify it in a good-humoured manner.
Internet; Pathological effects; Positive experience; Media; Brazilian Net users