Omegle

Hi all,

After yesterday's class discussion on social networks and telepresence on the web, I was intrigued and very taken back by the class experiment. I've never heard of chat roulette or omegle before and was interested. I noted the (hilarious) conversation we had in lecture and decided to have a little fun myself at home. What I found was interesting...

These social websites give courage and security to its users; however, these characteristics board a dangerously thin line with safety and uncensored vandalism. In the experiment I carried at home, I used Omegle and had to go through 8 users till I found a 'decent' conversation. In the first 8, all of the users were male, and they immediately requested my sex. As soon as I revealed myself as a male, FIVE of my conversations were disconnected. The other three asked if I was Bisexual. It wasn't until my 9th time on the site, where I found a decent conversation with a girl in Canada. She asked about accurate depictions of the popular MTV show, the Jersey Shore. We went on to discuss the racial disputes on the show, and admittedly had an intellectual conversation for about 30 minutes.

There are two sides that I would like to talk about in my experience with Omegle. First I'd like to say that this site, and many like it are extremely dangerous. The fact that there are 15-17 year old children on this website talking to threatening perverts is a scary thought. It took me 8 times to find a decent conversation with a decent human being. The fact that there are tons of people out there that use this website to take advantage of its' closed curtain is outrageous. Some may find it funny, but when you think about it; the ideals are far from funny. I used to wonder when I saw something on the news about children being kidnapped and how irresponsibly stupid they are for putting themselves in that position. The fact of the matter is, the irresponsibility lays with the parents for opening up this realm of insecurities and threats. How is an innocent 15 year old child able to defend him/herself from the deceiving minds of a public enemy, a night walker, or a spook?

The other side I'd like to discuss is a little more light-hearted. I'd like to discuss the genuine relationship that I DID establish with my Canadian buddy. You see, while it was very hard to come by, I had a very nice discussion with this girl, and to be honest, there wasn't much of a difference between a physical introduction and this one. Once we established our sexes, I asked her to "prove me wrong..and not talk about something absurd..." She simply replied "ok..." Skeptically, I asked a hetorical question, "is it possible to get a humane/civil conversation with decent people in this world?" and she delicately replied, "you're having one right now." I was taken back by such a remarkable response. Still on my toes, I carried our dialogue with intriguing Qs and As and interesting topics until it was time for me to end. The bottom line here is that I enjoyed our conversation and I thought it was an enlightening discovery to find that such a relationship could be created without the means of asking for a mere name! This leads me to discuss a topic that I am looking forward to hopefully talking about in class in the near future. Can cyber-relationships possible by legitimate? I know that there are a bunch of online dating sites and social matchmakers out there, and this one online conversation I had with an equivalent intellectual proved to me that these type of things have the potential to make people truly happy; to cut out social awkwardness, and dismiss shyness.

This is the end of this blog, and i'm sure I will have much more like it to come in the future. Peace to all you hopefuls out there. Give Omegle a shot, but be wary.