Constructing Identity Online: ChatRoulette

Looking for a Random Stranger

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/weekinreview/21bilton.html?scp=1&sq=Chatroulette&st=cse

ChatRoulette:

ChatRoulette is a social website that connects random strangers to through webcams.

Creator: Russian Andrew Ternovskiy, 17 years old

Launched November 2009

Creating Your Identity on ChatRoulette:

·      Requires a camera and microphone

·      No Log-in necessary

·      No registration

·      Users are encouraged to be at least 16 years old but the age limit is not enforced

·      Prohibits pornographic material

·      Ability to ‘disconnect’ from conversation

·      Screenshots, black screens, empty rooms—still creating identity?

·      If using webcam and showing one’s true self, they aren’t able to hide behind a written description. As David Huffaker and Sandra Calvert argue, "While physical constraints such as the body, biological sex, race, or age can have a profound effect on self-definition and self-presentation (Collins & Kuczaj, 1991), many of these attributes become flexible in online environments. In a virtual world, one even gets to construct one's body. The anonymity afforded to youth within virtual worlds allows adolescents more flexibility in exploring their identity through their language, their role play, and the personae they assume" ( David A. Huffaker and Sandra L. Calvert http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html) this does not apply in ChatRoulette as the camera adds a new dimension to creating one’s identity. Users are able to choose what clothes to wear, where to chat, background music, etc. The live aspect both limits and enhances the users’ identity.

·       

Frequent ChatRoulette Identities

·      Strangers just sitting at home surfing the web

·   College students (usually groups of kids)

·   Weird/Creative people

·   Sketchy/Creepy older men

http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/

“Real” Celebrities on ChatRoulette

·      Ben Folds- Musician played an improv ChatRoulette during a concert in Charlotte, N.C. 

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·      Paris Hilton

·      Chris Brown

·      Ashton Kutcher

**Users have claimed to have interacted with these celebrities while on ChatRoulette, but none of them are certain. Creates an ethical issue of stealing/’borrowing’ one’s identity

Reactions to ChatRoulette

•“chat with the most socially depraved people you will ever interact with” (http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/the-24-best-chat-roulette-screenshots-nsfw)

•“I hadn’t felt this socially trampled since I was an overweight 12-year-old struggling to get through recess without having my shoes mocked. It was total e-visceration. If this was the future of the Internet, then the future of the Internet obviously didn’t include me.” -Sam Anderson(http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/)




Sources:


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/weekinreview/21bilton.html?scp=1&sq=Chatroulette&st=cse
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/chatroulettes-founder-17-introduces-himself/?scp=2&sq=ChatRoulette&st=cse
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/new-site-unmasks-chatroulette-players/?scp=4&sq=ChatRoulette&st=cse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatroulette