This study examines young people's discussions about alcohol in an Internet chat room. I study how alcohol is meaningful to the young people through specifically focusing their understandings of the concepts control/loss of control, conscientiousness and maturity. I also study what relations of power are constructed among them. The results point to four different lines of reasoning about alcohol: the "teetotaller argument", the "age-distinction argument", the "moderate drinking argument" and the "getting drunk argument". From each of these lines of reasoning to the next, there is a shift in the definition of "the Others"--of those who are said to be immature. In three of the lines of reasoning--the teetotaller argument, the moderate drinking argument and the getting drunk argument--the young people describe the characteristics of what for them appears as an ideal person with ideal views on alcohol consumption and intoxication: the strong person, the competent drinker and the authentic person. In the concluding section of the paper, I discuss and compare these different lines of reasoning with each other and with previous research on young people and drinking. (Contains 1 table and 16 notes.)