chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
The video above (via alt1040) explains Chatroulette better than I would. My experience with it has been mixed, but it reminds me a lot of the old BBS/ICQ free-for-all 10 years ago. I’ve read metaphors comparing it to TV zapping with people, but I think it’s more akin a people player in shuffle mode. Some of the nice people I’ve found (after nexting all the flying male body parts) included:
- A bored Filipina (at 3 a.m. her time) asking what music was I playing (Nortec Collective, of course).
- A Dutch law student with a great sense of humour.
- A German dude interested in banking for development (we were chatting about Muhammad Yunus)
- Random male stranger asking questions on existential philosophy (my conclusion is he had watched The Matrix too many times).
- A Texan in his 50′s very interested to know my views on the Mexican drug violence situation.
- A French literature student just interested in a chat, also with a really nice sense of humour.
- A young Indian female doctor waiting for her night shift to start who gave me a couple of nice suggestions of Indian indie after I mentioned I collect “local rock” from all over the place.
Serendipituous, yes. Extreme, sometimes (but you can also next them or even better report them, jerks!). An interesting study of the human condition, absolutely.
