Just a few weeks ago I saw someone mention something about Chat Roulette on Twitter. I was bored and curious, so I thought I’d go and check it out, and I have to admit: it got kind of addictive at some point.
For the ones that haven’t discovered the wonders of Chat Roulette yet, it’s simply chatting with a random person with your webcam on. You can either talk or type. If you don’t like the person who comes on, you simply click “next”. That’s all there is really, no one has a profile, and when the other “nexts” you (yes it has turned into a verb!) or your connection dies you have no way of ever encountering the same person again.
So what do I like about it? Well for starters, I’m amused easily at silly things. Chat Roulette is amusing me cause I get the opportunity to talk to random people from all over the world. At one moment I’m peering into someone’s living room with a bunch of stoner heads having a party, the next time I’m talking to a guy who’s playing his guitar and so on.
Though it’s not all fun and giggles on Chat Roulette, half of the people happen to be ugly (fat, old) men that like to take their d*cks out and jack off on camera, regardless of who’s on. What if their boss happens to be on Chat Roulette too, I wonder to myself? There are also a whole bunch of 16 year old boys that ask you to show your boobs. No thanks.
However, next to these, there are a whole bunch of fun people on there. These are some of the people I have been talking to:
- A journalist from Lithuania
- A US-Palestina guy, about the situation in Palestina
- About Little Britain characters with guys from Canada
- About a tiger kite with a guy from China
- Digby the four-armed Australian caveman
- Learning how to say “Hi” in Macedonian (Zdravo! Kako si?)
- Josh the overhead door manager from the US
- Been offered to smoke “special shisha from Paris”
- Listened to Singaporean indie rock bands with a guy from Singapore
- And my Turkish skills have improved enormeously! (Merhaba! Nasilsim? Nerden?)
- Corey, an American soldier on Chat Roulette in the middle east…
- A French guy playing songs for me on the piano
I also came across some famous people, the band Angels & Airwaves fronted by the Blink-182 singer, but I suspect that it was just a prank video, they seemed awfully looped. I also came across the Jonas Brothers once, but they’re a silly prank video.
Somehow, I find Chat Roulette fascinating. I’ve been thinking of something creative to do with it, but I haven’t quite thought of what to do with it though. I did take a lot of screen shots and made some stats based on spending one hour on Chat Roulette.
So here we go!
| Male: | 17 |
| Female: | 2 |
| Wankers: | 8 |
| Total: | 30 |
With ‘wankers’ I obviously mean the guys with their d*cks out. I nexted those. I on the other hand, was “nexted” about 8 times. It seems that’s a low number, because some guys are surprised when I don’t next them; apparently everybody else does. But well, it helps being a blonde girl; I appear to be a rare species on Chat Roulette!
I had a short conversation with 12 guys, from different countries. I asked them about their location and I came up with: Spain, USA (3x), the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, UK (2x) and Denmark. I’ve noticed that usually there are a lot of French and Turkish people on there. I also encountered a guy from Algeria, a girl from Peru, a guy from Singapore, a guy from Japan but it’s mostly Europe and the USA. Though that might be because of my time-zone.
Age-wise, the youngest people were two boys from NYC at 15, and the oldest person was a man of 37, from Turkey. He spoke crap English though, and strangely no one wants to believe me when I say I don’t speak Turkish after I introduced myself in Turkish… Strange, isn’t it!
Here’s a bunch of screen shots I made while being on Chat Roulette, please don’t mind my night shirt ;)
Eugenia
on May 12th, 2010
@ 07:05:
I am amuzed at how almost 30% of the people are wankers. What does this say about the mental health of humanity?
Stefan
on May 12th, 2010
@ 11:01:
It tells us… we’re wankers? oh snap!
There is a fun side to it all though, and it can be seen on youtube, Try using “chatroulette speedpainting” or “chat roulette ode to merton” as a search term.
Kay
on May 12th, 2010
@ 18:58:
Oh I know Merton, he’s great :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qBFNaA7u1E This one, Lady Gaga’s Telephone in Chat Roulette version is awesome, too :D
I don’t know the speed painting one yet but will look into it :3
Kay
on May 12th, 2010
@ 19:17:
That we’re a bunch of perverts? :D
Adam
on May 12th, 2010
@ 19:38:
Chat Roulette is for people who are insanely bored or amused by *anything*, making it through an hour is good going. Oh and slap stefan for me
Kay
on May 12th, 2010
@ 19:40:
I think that’s a good description of me 8D
And sure, will do! ;)
Adam
on May 13th, 2010
@ 22:05:
You weren’t supposed to go take that seriously lmfao
Kay
on May 14th, 2010
@ 01:04:
He deserved to be slapped, anyway 8D Though he did an awesome job of accompanying me today 8D
Adam
on May 14th, 2010
@ 12:38:
Then you need to thank him properly, think of something he would appreciate
Kay
on May 14th, 2010
@ 17:16:
I bought him pancakes :D
Adam
on May 15th, 2010
@ 01:19:
My sources tell me he paid for himself, I think you really owe him. Maybe you should flash him or something.
Kay
on May 17th, 2010
@ 00:34:
lol! Do your research!!!!
TheHiMan
on Sep 17th, 2010
@ 18:13:
Well your chances of being “nexted” decreases tremendously if you’re: 1) Female and 2) Western.
On the other hand I’m: 1) Male and 2) Asian.
So in 2 mins i got nexted about ….close to 50 to 60 times?
There was one guy that actually typed though.
Of course he said: ” HAHA CHINESE”
….
Seriously, you can only actually TALK if you’re a girl.
Kay
on Sep 17th, 2010
@ 20:59:
I guess that’s true indeed, it seems people are kind of shallow that way? Well, you can also talk when you encounter me on chat roulette! :D But then again, I grew bored of it after a few days.