Casey Rifkin- Participation #3

When I first attempted to do this blog post, I looked into i-Dosing. For whatever reason, I could not find i-Dosing easily and gave up my search. I had never done Chat Roulette and heard mixed reviews. On the one hand, I know someone who found her boyfriend on it and on the other, I've heard countless horror stories of creepy men just waiting for their next target. I was apprehensive because I hate video chatting or any form of video communication, but as soon as it started, my hesitation faded away. Most people on it are just sitting at their desk or in bed staring at the screen and either smiling upon seeing your face or pressing next. I noticed it was difficult to have a long conversation unless it was some creepy guy with his shirt off which I quickly evaded. What I didn't realize was the large amount of people on it from different countries. Even though I have lived in the age of Skype, Facebook, Facetiming and other technologies, my mind was still blown that I could see into the lives of someone on the other side of the globe.

Despite the language barriers, people in other countries would still attempt to talk and communicate even if it was only by smiling, laughing or acting words out. Even though there were plenty of creepy people, there were much less than I expected. My only concern was that for every time there was a questionable character, the next second would be a little girl barely 13-years-old. I think it is extremely risky to have access to such a wide variety of ages in such an intimate setting as a video chat, but because you can press "next" so quickly, I have changed my mind on the extremity of the accessibility. If for any reason I felt uncomfortable, I clicked the button and was transported to a different country. It is easy to get lost exploring the different characters, yet, at the same time, after 15 minutes, I had seen enough. While this type of media is amazing and mind-blowing, it seems like MySpace where it's just a place for creepy people to congregate and teenagers to mess around and make fun of other people. I did not see any opportunity for real impact, but I am glad I experienced it. In all, Chat Roulette is a great tool for communication across all boundaries, but I do not see it as a reliable source of relationship-building or any other matter than for fun.