Mar 2, 2010
Chat Roulette
Today happened to be my first time using chat roulette, and whatever the guy in the video said was true. It took me about ten minutes before I actually had a conversation with someone. Out of maybe 40 people, 4 were girls. I saw one and a half penises(one was covered in a sheet).
In a sense, it is roulette. And just like real gambling, you lose most of the time. I immediately lost count of how many times I got nexted, and honestly the appeal of chat roulette runs out fast. Meeting completely random people may be fun for a little bit, but its more work then you’d think it’d be because people consistently next you. However, its free so you just keep on trying with nothing to lose.
There’s obviously the other side of chat roulette. Despite my initial theories of chat roulette (which have been confirmed. There are, infact, perverts on it) there is still some merit to it. As in real gambling, you do eventually win when you reach that random person who is just like you; he is also trying to win. What results is something thats actually good. You find someone else who just wants to have a conversation and perhaps learn something new.
If you do happen to find someone who isn’t weird, you can actually have a nice conversation. I met a man from Illinois who was also using chat roulette for the first time. We spoke for about ten minutes and could have probably spoken longer had class not ended. I can’t say that our conversation was particularly meaning, but we still had a conversation about chat roulette and what we think about it. What I learned was that no matter what you’re using chat roulette for, everyone has the same expectations for it: masturbaters and nexters.
I wouldn’t depend on chat roulette as a reliable tool to meet new people, and I don’t think anyone does. I don’t think chat roulette will ever be taken seriously and will not evolve past the point as a quick fun thing to do or a quick joke to play. However, there still is some good to be gotten from it if you’re patient. It’s a mountain of crap, but underneath it all is a small diamond; you just need to work a bit to get it.
I would agree that chat roulette’s potential comes from the fact that you can actually meet random people and possibly get some sort of experience you wouldn’t otherwise get. Like the reading said, social networking sites more for upholding relationships that already existed. Though it’s possible to meet new people to it, its very unlikely. But with chat roulette there’s no way to uphold any previous relationship unless you happen to pair up with the same person over and over again.
So its primary purpose, despite what it’s really being used for, is to just meet someone you’ve never seen before. Whether or not you actually become friends is something else, but that’s also part of the “gamble.”
Sometimes you win, but you may also win the jackpot.
Jesus,
A very interesting post indeed. I thought you made some very thoughtful observations.
I was particularly curious on whether you thought part of chatroulette’s potential value was to expose us to new thoughts, communities, or knowledge we would not have come across through more conventional social networking. Furthermore, does the anarchic nature of the site also put it in contrast to more corporatized social network sites like Facebook, bebo, etc.?