In a world where everyone is constantly on the move and people are finding smarter ways to interact, social networking sites have probably been the 21^st centuries most successful invention so far. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Bebo are all sites that allow you, the user, to interact, communicate, and stay in touch with people from across the globe and at the same time, meet new people and reunite with long lost friends. This is the general function that a social networking site tends to serve, but a new somewhat mutant strain of networking sites has joined the arena and it serves a totally different purpose altogether.

The sudden astronomical rise of Chatroulette has turned many a head and it has been a tremendous success thus far. With over 35,000 users at any one time, it isn’t bad for a site that started of about five months back. To those who are unfamiliar with this new phenomenon, Chatroulette is a webcam based social networking site that pairs you up with a random stranger. There is the option to speak over the microphone or simply type your words in. When you have finished conversing with the other person, you simply click “Next” and the service pairs you with another random stranger. The site itself is fairly low tech and it was created by a 17 year old Russian high-school student who has been tipped as the Iron Curtain’s answer to Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook’s creator. It is extremely simple to use and the only extra item required is a webcam.

On paper Chatroulette looks like a great idea and has tremendous potential. It is a fantastic opportunity for the young man behind this initiative to make some quick cash and I highly doubt he would turn away advertisers. Chatroulette’s biggest advantage lies in its anonymity. It leaves people with the option to be at complete ease with the fact that the person they are viewing on webcam is just a face on a screen, and no matter what you do the chances of having any long-term embarrassing consequences are minutely small. So I decided to give this a spin and see what happened for the benefit of you, the reader. I entered the site, hooked up my webcam, and simply clicked “New Game”. Now, I have been going on Chatroulette regularly for the past week or so and it wasn’t all that I expected it to be. I would have to estimate that 90% of the people, if not more, simply took a glance at me and clicked “Next”. A sizeable proportion of these people had their genitalia on display which was most unpleasant. I was clearly met with a judgemental attitude which was summed up brilliantly in one short encounter I had with two teenagers from France. On taking one look at me, they decided to call me Yoda and jibe a racist comment or two in French. However, by simply saying “Je parle francais un petit peu” (I speak a little French), their mischievous grins were wiped from their faces and they duly disconnected in sheer embarrassment. A classic example of the French surrender.

However, there was the rare occasion where I met decent people. One was a 16-year old Irish boy with South African origins who had been smoking weed for the past five years! On enquiring that if I was Muslim, a theological debate ensued as to the religious view on recreational drugs. I encountered a Canadian silk product wholesaler who is also a motorbike mechanic and a 29 year old Home Office bureaucrat from London with razor-sharp wit. I also managed to meet a 30 year old Belgian steel worker who used to play football with Arsenal F.C. defender Thomas Vermaelen’s brother on a regular basis. He also told me he ran 25 miles a week, a fact I could barely digest. Finally, I bumped into a 17 year old French student who had ambitions to become a publisher.

After all this, I could draw only one of two conclusions. Either that our world is so diverse and so colourful that the possibilities of meeting unique people are close to certain, or that simply due to anonymity, you can be whoever you want to be and lead your life in the virtual world of Chatroulette as a complete Charlatan. Being the optimist I am, I think the former to be true and through the medium of Chatroulette, have found that the world is truly full of unique, colourful, and diverse personalities but it takes a whole lot of scouring to find it. I guess you are simply gambling with fate.

“Fate only takes you so far, then it’s up to you to make it happen”- Unknown

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