ChatRoulette: A Cultural Evolution

I honestly believe that you can get an accurate snapshot of America if you just watch a couple of hours of America's Funniest Home Videos. You are quite literally welcomed into slivers of American homes. Tom Bergeron is your Robin Leach into the Lifestyles of the Middle Class. It's not to say we're all clumsy or silly or stupid, but we all take pride in sharing the moments that made us laugh. Laughter is an acquired reaction and when you get someone laughing you surely have their attention. We all just want to be seen on our own terms.

Enter ChatRoulette, an anonymous one-on-one video chat session online. Like speed-dating on crack and with lower expectations, you're poised to share whatever it takes to keep someone on the other side.

Ironically, the dichotomy of the ChatRoulette audience is pure good and evil. The reflection of the young, Internet-savvy America is either curious groups of kids or dicks. Physical dicks. Either people are looking for something interesting to watch or hear, or providing the most basic of entertainment: masturbation.

NOTICE: The beautiful, sad truth is the power ChatRoulette gives to each user. You have the world at your fingertips, firmly ready on the F9 key that connects and disconnects your "Stranger" on the other line.

We are all eager for connection of the right kind. Our generation has grown up drowning in media, meeting so many characters that they feel the same. And when we don't feel that we know anybody on a passive screen, we turn to the active one.

SIDE STEP: Whether or not we are losing our attention span I can't say for sure. Like some kind of cultural evolution we are expected to be of interest to the world. If someone is patient enough to be interested in your face and hear your words, you're expected to say something of interest, too. It becomes an exercise in how alluring you honestly can be.

For my group of friends, most conversations quickly became an impromptu session of show-and-tell. We resorted to how children express themselves. Through our possessions, we opened up our homes rather our minds because too often we don't have original, compelling thoughts. Myself included.

But now it makes me think that building myself into a more interesting person is worthwhile. To have something ready to ponder, discuss, analyze or rant about seems like tons of more fun than small talk. Likewise, I've always been content with the causal jeans and tee look but now I dare to wonder if changing my style is worth it to make the best of my interactions.

I think the world wants us all to be more interesting. And damnit, I'm gonna try.