Chatroulette – gambling for cheap laughs
Facebook is the new MySpace. Twitter is the new Facebook. Every month or so it seems like a brand new form of social networking is revealed that promises to be the latest and greatest. But the game has truly changed with Chatroulette.
If you have yet to discover this gem of a website I will briefly break it down. Once you go onto www.chatroulette.com, you simply press play and then you are paired up via webcam and text to a random stranger. Don’t like that person? No awkward goodbyes necessary, simply press next and then it is on to the next randomly generated person.
While the site has been around since November of 2009, it has recently gained a lot of attention amongst the media. Mainly the media is focusing on the seedier side of Chatroulette. Any amount of time spent on the site will expose one to this seedy side so I will not go into detail on it, but in only focusing on the negatives the media has left out the true joys of the site.
Just recently I was doing research on the subject I ran into a variety of people. Conversations with a woman from Denmark, a couple from France and many other foreign places gave me tastes of different cultures. A musician also treated me to a mini- concert from Chicago. This was all in the course of an hour.
There in lies the joy of Chatroulette. It is the experience of meeting and briefly interacting with people all over the world who you are more then likely never going to encounter again. You don’t have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings when you move on – it is all part of the game.
Where else in life can you meet so many people so quickly and from many different backgrounds as well? I chatted with many, many intelligent and witty people. Even if your only goal is to go on and make people laugh and smile, you will have a great time.
Gone are the days were down time is spent aimlessly browsing Facebook, looking at the same pictures over and over again. Instead if you have some free time you can spend it hanging out with over 20,000 people world wide, one person at a time.
Yes, there are things that will have you pressing the next button rapidly – in fact I would recommend you keep your mouse over the button at all times. But once you get beyond that and begin to enjoy casually meeting and chatting with people, you will have an amazing time.
Try it out, you never know who you are going to meet. Only on the internet can you meet two female students from Florida wearing Luchadore masks in one minute followed by someone killing time at work in Brazil.