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The notion of a «masculinity crisis» typically depicts contemporary men as «man-children». These grown-up males avoid the demands of a Western traditional male role, and instead seek comforting, but ultimately self-defeating, «safe havens» in the consumption of popular culture and new technologies, i.e. video gaming and internet pornography. By interviewing five so-called «bronies», devoted male fans of the TV-series My Little Pony, we demonstrate how virtual realities also can serve as a cultural resource. Our analysis suggests that the My Little Pony show and its fandom help bronies create their own space, dwell on difficulties in their lives, find a community of like-minded peers, and ultimately function more adequately in everyday life. Therefore, our qualitative study suggests that the consequences of technology are more open and comprise more inherent possibilities, than is often postulated in contemporary psychological renderings of technology’s role in the lives of young people..

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