My latest video for the “Samuel Michaels” digital story is still processing on YouTube, so I thought I’d take the extra time and write a post on some cool information on recent happenings. Now onto… Chatroulette!
I’m sure nearly every one of you who is reading this has heard of the little internet phenomenon known as “Chatroulette“. For those of you who don’t, Chatroulette is basically a website where you video chat with random people throughout the world. The site pairs you with someone, then you click “Next” to move on once you are either bored, confused, or (most likely) grossed out by the other person. It’s very popular among some colleges, 16 year old girls, Germans, and perverts. Most of you have also probably heard the stereotype that Chatroulette is filled with… well… genitalia. I’ve heard many people say it, my friend yesterday told me the site disturbed her, and Jim Groom even commented one class that he was amazed at how many naked people there are on the site. To be honest, I didn’t really believe it. I thought it was just another over generalization about a popular internet site. So of course I had to see for myself!
I can now confirm after using it myself very briefly that this stereotype is absolutely 100% true. Beyond that, I would strongly suggest that you don’t go check it out for yourself, unless you enjoy male genitalia being stuffed in your face literally every third click. Please take our and the rest of the internets’ word on this one. However, I seem to have done the impossible. I made a friend on Chatroulette. Yes. That’s right. I created a legitimate relationship with a normal human being on Chatroulette. In between all the awkward pervert-looking people, overly-contrasted faces in dark rooms, and guys “laying” on their beds, I ran into a really nice girl from Germany. And after a very lengthy translator-assisted conversation even agreed to friend eachother on Facebook. I feel like this should go down as a major turning point in the history of mankind or something.
This is proof that there is a small hope for decency on these mostly creeper-ridden chat websites that are becoming so popular. And I can’t help but hope that interactions such as these are what the sites were originally intended to create. We don’t live in a world where friendships are limited by how far we can walk in a day, we live in the modern age of internet and social media. Despite this hope, it seems as though the perverts will always overrun these sites. It’s because of them that you won’t ever see my face pop up on your Chatroulette screen again. Maybe if stronger blocking/reporting was added to the site. But I’m not gonna hold my breath.
Have any of you ever actually made a friend on Chatroulette or any site like it? I want to know! Leave a comment…
Happy Trails,
Sam.
Addition:
I should probably explain the stereotypes I mentioned earlier. Those being that Chatroulette is popular among 16 year old girls, Germans, and perverts. I say that because consistently I ran into 16 year old girls who said they lived Germany. I don’t know if I just happened to be placed on a server with a bunch of Germans or if Germans just love Chatroulette, but that’s what happened. Also every single German I saw was eating M&Ms. Dunno if it has any significance, but maybe we should add it to The Stereotype List. Oh and why did I say perverts? Well that one should be obvious.
I’ve met quite a few people on there that I’ve actually had lengthy conversations with– a couple of college kids from Minneapolis sticks out in my mind most. I think it’s pretty cool that among all of the less than decent things on that site, there are a whole bunch of people that actually want to connect with others around the world (a friend of mine had a conversation with a girl from Venezuela for about an hour, in Spanish, no less). Some sort of filter would be nice, but then again, I guess that’s the whole “roulette” part of the site.
Chatroulette has taken me by suprise. An idea from the 90′s has taken off again. It blows my mind.
just was shown a facebook app with chatroulette features, thought that’s cool
It’s Chatroulette, though, which makes the idea of a “filter” very hard. How can you filter something that’s by definition “random”? I suppose they could have a “report” button, and once someone is reported, their IP address is blocked from using the site. That would be nice. Of course what if the perverts gang up on the normal guys on the site and block them all… We could have an all-out war on our hands!