In the past few months, the website Chatroulette has literally taken the Internet by storm. Launched in November 2009 by Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow, the site now has about 35,000 visitors at a time. But for something that has so many talking, a lot of people have yet to discover it.
Chatroulette is a website that connects random strangers across the globe by way of webcam, keyboard and chance. Upon entering the site, you are connected with a stranger looking back at you. At any point in the conversation, any member of the party may hit “next” and move on to a new random stranger.
The idea of “nexting” is interesting, as it is literally based on physical appearances. “[It bothered me] the first time [I was nexted], but then I made the startling revelation that getting nexted on Chatroulette doesn’t really reflect on my character all that much,” Senior Environmental Studies Major Haven Davis said.
Of course, nexting works both ways. If a person looks boring or weird—next. “I have a bit of a trigger finger when it comes to creepy men and penise., I will next those fairly quickly, and honestly I next any pale white kid with headphones on; they never really do anything interesting and just sort of creep me out,” Senior History Major Steve Palmer said.
Most of the time, the other person “looking” back at you is a man masturbating, midstroke. But amid the barrage of extremely inappropriate and voyeuristic perverts, some decent and genuine human beings can be found.
“I have met many people from other countries, mostly Europe, but also South America and one guy from Tunisia,” Palmer said.
The average interaction with each new random stranger doesn’t last very long, a few seconds for some. But, there are occasions when new friendships are made.
“I talked to a couple of guys in college for like fifteen minutes once,” Davis said.
“My friend and I were super bored, and so we went on [Chatroulette]. We talked to this guy Robert from Brazil for a good hour or more. We were chatting him up and then went to get sandwhiches, came back and he had fallen in love with my roommate. I thought we had something, Robert. But apparently not. He tried to add me on facebook, but he’s a water sign, so there’s no way,” Senior History Major Natalie Baker said.
Like Baker and her friend, most students interviewed choose to chat in groups.
“Playing alone generally is less fun, and feels far creepier and weirder. Also, being a dorky looking white male, I am the least desirable demographic, just barely ahead of fat men masturbating. So nobody really pays attention to me. Doing it in a group is more fun. Honestly the fun of it comes from having a gimmick of some sort. So a group makes this more conducive,” Palmer said.
Chatroulette Bingo has become popular, too. With boxes to cross off like “a sad, shirtless dude,” “a cat sleeping,” “someone wearing headphones” and even “the Jonas brothers” (which really does happen).
However it’s done, each time a person logs into Chatroulette is a unique experience never to be duplicated.
We go from an article last week about the joys of binge drinking, to one that is talking about going on web-cams with strangers who show their “penise.” and are “masterbating mid-stroke”? Jake Seamans wasn’t kidding when he claimed that the weekly a “tabloid” was he?
It might be good to fix the part of the website that says the Weekly aims to fufill the highest standards of professional journalism. …Sounds like a big giant typo.
Phil,
First, you’re taking my words out of context: tabloid refers to the particular size of paper The Weekly is printed on.
Second, there are a number of other news agencies who have covered Chatroulette, including MSNBC, ABC news, CBS news, The Washington Post, The New York Times and FOX news. Chatroulette is a social networking phenomenon of interest to college students at large and Gustavus students in particular.
I think the point is to hear different perspectives on this subject. I’ve written a couple of articles on chatroulette and wonder out loud if this is good adult fun, or if there is something socially disturbing about where this could go. “Roulette” is entirely appropriate, because you never know when the bizarre image will appear!
Well, this sounds like the internet is at it again. Chatroullette could be likened to a walk down the street or a visit to a bar, where you check someone out and if you don’t find them attractive or intresting then you don’t interact or attempt to do so. You just look around for the next candidate and thereby you are nexting!
This post was written about 1 year ago, and chat roulette is becoming even more popular. The problem I find with this new phenomenon is that there is 2 types of people on chat roulette sites. The ones there for speed dating or just meeting new people and the ones there for sex web cam.
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agreed !! there are some guys are like pervs or something..but there are also descent guys in chatroulette very few though..and it is fun doing it in a group cuz you and your friends can vote if you want to chat the guy or next..:)) so much fun..