elearnspace

Chatroulette is drawing attention from many groups – parents, students, teachers, and – as commonly focused on – the fringe of society. Basically it’s you and someone else chatting via video. If you don’t like your partner, you click and advance to another random person. Whenever a tool like this arises and causes a combination of panic and intrigue, it’s important to look beyond the tool and see the behaviours and interests of individuals. Why are people interested in meeting random people (while wearing costumes, masks, or nothing…singing songs, rapping, arguing, etc.)? What is it about chatroulette that causes many early social media adopters – as I’ve heard many state – to express disdain for the tool and a reluctance to use it? The easy answer is that we are social people who like to meet new people. Or that we are voyeuristic.

The real appeal, I think, is that we are drawn to randomness, to newness. In spite of structured content and teaching that defines formal education, we like random connections: “despite its weirdness, Chatroulette brings back an element of fun and surprise to vastness of the Internet, where social networks of friend lists and avatars has remained the norm for years on end.” Chatroulette takes the structured, secure, controllable social networking sites we participate in…and adds bit of interestingness to it. Randomness is a great motivator for participation.