May 11, 2010

"The majority of Chatroulette users are male and under thirty-five, and many of them are trolling for girls, so they 'next' each other at barbaric rates."

"When you do decide to stop and engage, things can get a little awkward. On one of my first Chatrouletting attempts, I found myself talking to a man from Lyons, who had muted the sound. We watched each other typing and reacting to the words that scrolled next to our images, co-stars in a postmodern silent film.... Striking up a conversation with the person next to you on the subway is risky, and potentially time-consuming. On Chatroulette you can always just disappear."

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds a little like standing on the P&W platform in mid-January when the trolley doesn't show.

You always turn to the next guy/girl and ask, "Heard anything? Is it working today?".

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

“I just don’t understand how someone can code and have such big blank spots in math,” says his tutor.

He might see code as the means to an end whereas textbook math is not so clear.

MadisonMan said...

Yes, why talk to neighbors, or friends, when you can talk to strangers? But I do like the story of how it came to be.

This looks like a serious time sink for people. Can I 'next' it and wait for the next big thing?

HKatz said...

But I do like the story of how it came to be.

So do I. These lines especially are striking:
He has a hard time making eye contact and learned English by spending thousands of hours chatting online, but he says that his passion is talking with people and “exploring other cultures.”

Penny said...

Color me impressed! This kid is 18 years old, and on his way to changing a little bit of a lot of people's worlds.

“In the past three months, Chatroulette had nearly forty-eight million unique visitors.”

He may not have the social skills, YET. Give him some time.

What he does have is a mind that works in unusual ways, and the bravery it takes to follow his own path.

Penny said...

“When the Russian media finally caught on to his rise, Ternovskiy found their attention and patriotic questions distasteful. “I don’t want to make it a Russian thing,” he told me. “The whole point is to have no borders.”"

No borders.

We could use more thinking like this here in the states where we coddle our kids into not growing up so fast. The best current example is keeping them on their parents healthcare plans until they are 26. Twenty six year old *kids* with way too many "borders".

Anonymous said...

Can I set it up so the other person looks really yellow and I look really pink? Then I can pretend they're Bob Wright and I'm Ann Althouse.