If you haven’t heard of this latest internet phenomenon, I’m not sure where you’ve been. Regardless, chatroulette is a social network tool that connects random people via webcam around the world. You never know who you are going to talk to, what you are going to see, and you can’t have any expectations whatsoever. This website is definitely NOT kid friendly, so when I read is was actually created by a 17 year old boy in Russia named Andrey Ternovskiy, I was shocked, but also quite impressed.
If you are not the type to be disturbed easily by male genitalia, masturbation, nudity, drug use, and weapons, this website could be quite entertaining for you. After hearing a report on NPR, I decided I would try the website out myself. It wasn’t surprising to me to see that most users were male, and younger. I wasn’t on the site to chat, I wanted to see what kind of person is using chatroulette. You have an option on the screen to skip users, so I was obviously just skimming over everyone. The first guy I got was just a normal guy probably in college. The next camera I got was a close up of a guy masturbating, followed by more guys sitting at their computers, some without shirts, more masturbating, and one female who was on her bed in her underwear surrounded by Maxim magazines. After about 5 minutes I was pretty done with the website. I don’t know who honestly goes on the site to start a real conversation. It was extremely awkward for me to just be sitting there and having someone stare at you via webcam. Not my cup of tea.
If you are not faint of heart, definitely try it out. It’s worth the experience to see what the hype is about. Although for me it wasn’t too exciting, just really awkward, I can see how people would enjoy it. Definitely a way to waste some time.
Melindawhoa! 