By
Stacy-Anne Abuel
Meghan Brady
Vicky Chung
Kristie Dinh
Emily Hetu
Christine Kelemen
Nora Pasin
Introduction
As society becomes increasingly globalized, people's access to others and their own personal identity evolve. In a world where more and more people are forming significant relationships in the virtual world, it is necessary to reexamine the normative idea of intimacy, specifically intimacy created in the virtual world via social networking websites. Among these social networks is the relatively new video chat-based website ChatRoulette, which brings strangers from around the world together for a time, however long or short, they please. ChatRoulette has become a medium for virtual sexual encounters, but the complete randomness specific to ChatRoulette has lead to the prevalence of sexual content being higher than most. This veil of perceived anonymity, coupled with the random nature of ChatRoulette, allows users to express themselves in ways that would be deemed taboo in the physical world. Outside research and participant observation revealed a high number of users who use ChatRoulette for the thrill of meeting a stranger and being able to define themselves, and their interaction, in the moment. In this way, users form a new type of intimacy- one rooted in the virtual world and defined by the spontaneity of human nature and the lack of shared history. As a medium, ChatRoulette facilitates these "thrilling" and uniquely intimate interactions because it alleviates some of the pressures of social norms and gives users the chance to reshape their identity.
The paradox of global randomization: Who you are likely to meet on ChatRoulette
ChatRoulette is a rapidly growing website that gives people the opportunity to be paired with random strangers for webcam-based conversations. At any moment in a chat, either user can leave and continue to begin another random conversation. On any night, the site hosts about 20,000 users (Fitz 2010:1). To begin analyzing the varying degrees of intimacy on the site, it is important to know who exactly the users are likely to be paired with. Thus, an informal study by Techcrunch.com found that ChatRoulette is approximately 72% male and the users are more likely to encounter an empty chair than a woman. About 70% of the users are classified as young adults and women tended to be younger than men. Even though the site originated in Russia, approximately 47% of the people on the site are from the United States (Moore 2010:1). Although ChatRoulette poses users have expressed excitement in using the website, there are many possible dangers of using it that the users may not be aware of.
Degrees of intimacy is a recurring theme in studies of various forms of online media, and ChatRoulette is no different. In Wagner James Au’s Thursday’s Traveler: The Avatar Who Loved Himself, CyFishy, a Second Life user, simultaneously controls two avatars, who later date and become partners. The romantic bond between CyFishy and Beginning Thursday gave the user reassurance when she felt sad. CyFishy explains, “On a practical level, [the partnership] spares me the trouble of dealing with the drama of coupling and de-coupling that I’ve seen so many others go through” (Au 2008). This mentality presents itself in ChatRoulette as well; users can control the level of intimacy they want to pursue, thus allowing them to engage in sexually intimate interactions with no strings attached if they so choose. Users have a mutual understanding that their interactions are fleeting and subsequent meetings are not expected.
Furthermore, CyFishy explains, “’On a deeper and more curious level, it’s become a means to explore how to give myself the kind of love I was constantly seeking from outside of myself’” (Au 2008). Now that the Internet has become an irremovable part of people’s lives, things that people feel they lack in the physical world—such as love or intimacy—can be found in cyberspace. The liberation, madness, and possibilities CyFishy has found in Second Life are all elements that users in ChatRoulette may find as well.
In Eritrea Online: Diaspora, Cyberspace, and the Public Sphere, Victoria Bernal (2005) explores how Eritreans utilize the Internet to connect with each other across far distances. She states that on the Internet, “identities are deterritorized [and] one’s most pressing communication may be with far-flung strangers in cyberspace” (Bernal 2005:660). This is not just true for Eritreans in diaspora; because the use of Internet has become truly global, ethnicities and nationalities no longer act as barriers that limit who people can interact with. Similarly, in ChatRoulette, users can meet other users from all corners of the world. That one Russian teenager’s project spread globally in such a short amount of time is an example of the Internet’s ability to deterritorialize identities.
However, Bernal also criticizes common conceptualizations of community-building on the Internet as naïve and over-simplified—“Some conceptualizations of transnational migration and the Internet are too dominated by the notion of ‘circulation’ and by the equation of movement (virtual or geographic) with freedom, represented by fantasies of limitless speed, unchecked mobility, and wide-open (cyber)spaces. Analysts need to consider who and what is circulating and to recognize that what connects people also fragments them, just as Eritrean cyberspace is distinct from other cyberspaces” (Bernal 2005:662). The Internet has, in some ways, created an equal global village; but in the case of ChatRoulette, there is an imbalance, with a higher concentration of North Americans actively using the site. The dominance of the English language may indirectly exclude certain demographics from participating. The dichotomy between inclusion and exclusion exists in communities throughout the Internet, including ChatRoulette.
The Thrill of the Chat: Intimacy and Identity on ChatRoulette
The question of intimacy and identity serves as a unique juxtaposition in the process of chatting on ChatRoulette through the intersecting of norms and values regarding safety and future relationships. By actively going online and interacting with those in various parts of the world, the way one presents his or her identity is an indication of the type of intimacy one is looking for by going on ChatRoulette. Because identity is something one can control in indefinite ways on the internet, age, location, sex, or even physical features can be manipulated by the workings of the web cam (blurriness, darkness, special effects, etc.) and the participants’ creativity. It is assumed that people who enter cyberspace to form interpersonal relationships generally “show greater difficulties in social face-to-face situations” (Peris et al 2002). They have to hide behind a computer screen to be able to interact socially. This might be the reason why subjects on ChatRoulette may choose to objectify their selves by showcasing their bodies in a sexual manner, or they may choose to not show their bodies at all and hide their identity behind a mask, costume, or wig.
Intimacy, on the other hand, can be tampered with by the way ChatRoulette is structured. Before actually starting to chat with random people online, ChatRoulette gives participants the options of chatting via text, video, audio, or a combination of all three. As these options are available, intimacy is determined by the way people communicate with each other with these preferences. Throughout fieldwork, most of the occurrences involved a male showcasing his bare body. This act of sexual expression has created the norm of seeing a naked man on the other side of the screen looking for someone to express the same desires, which most of the time, again through fieldwork, seemed to be a female to expose herself as well. During most of the interviews our group conducted, many of the males that had been the exception to the nudity that we encountered explained that they usually did not keep in touch with the people they met. The reason for this is because of the thrill they experienced through meeting new people on ChatRoulette and the fact that it was only a one-time conversation with a complete stranger on the other side of the webcam. This thrill evermore creates a superficial type of intimacy between the people that communicate via ChatRoulette because of the sexualized manner that the people have created on the online interaction website.
The fact that Chatroulette serves as a place where people can meet and talk to others around the world, a place where they can choose to look or act how they want to a complete stranger, transmits the idea some studies show that people use online chat as a means to satisfy their need for interaction. The main motivations people have to connect to the Internet are seeking conversation, experimenting with a new communication media, and initiating relationships with other people (Peris et al 2002). People on Chatroulette are, in a sense, using it as a medium – a virtual realm – to expand their socialization circle with people they might not otherwise make conversation with in the real world.
In Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" authors Constance Steinkuehler and Dimitri Williams (2006) argue that “media are displacing crucial civic and social institutions” because “time spent with relatively passive and disengaging media has come at the expense of time spent on vital community-building activities” (Steinkuehler and Williams 2006). Research in ChatRoulette supports this argument. As previously mentioned, the majority of people interviewed on the website were not interested in finding deep or long-term intimacy. They used the website for excitement, more like a hobby. Instead of going out into their own real-life communities and interacting with people face-to-face, they participated in ChatRoulette where they could remain anonymous and act, as one user said, “in different ways than normal.” Since users have admitted they do not go on the website to establish valuable connections, time spent on ChatRoulette could be considered disengaging. Interactions are fleeting, especially since participants have the ability to “next” anyone they are paired with. During participant observation, our group members found that they were often “nexted” when they tried to communicate with others and ask questions. They would not have the opportunity to see the other person’s face because they would not show it. This type of behavior does not support vital community-building activities.
As various norms become evident, such as chatting via text only, intimacy can also be characterized with how open one is on ChatRoulette. With the data obtained through participant observation on the site, several people were interested in talking via another means of communication such as MSN instant messenger, Skype, or through cell phone conversations. Those that wanted to keep in contact through MSN instant messenger were from European countries, while the majority of the users, who were found to be from Canada and the United States during fieldwork, would rather not keep in contact. One particular male interviewee had given out his cell phone number, with the goal in mind of keeping in touch through another means of communication. ChatRoulette serves as the middle ground because when users decide to communicate at a later time with people they meet on the site, they have to do so through another medium. This exchange of personal information can create a less open environment for ChatRoulette users due to the fact that if they do decide to communicate through other means, they will limit the amount of information they choose to give out on the website. In the sense of what is considered “open,” users contemplate giving out information that is personal, such as a telephone number or an email, or even something miniscule, such as name, age, sex, or location.
Partaking in fieldwork presented what levels of intimacy are acceptable in ChatRoulette. Fieldworkers observed what was seen as too intimate for users and what was commonly seen as appropriate for users. Performing within the ChatRoulette community, we kept track of our findings and tallied the occurrence of different circumstances. Most users that we encountered during fieldwork were males over eighteen but under thirty-five years of age. Sexual intimacy and masturbation were extremely common, making them a norm within the ChatRoulette community. Names, however, were rarely exchanged during interactions with users. The first few questions users of ChatRoulette would generally ask were age and location; names were not part of ChatRoulette etiquette. In terms of intimacy, it could be interpreted that sharing names with the fellow user on the screen was too intimate of a connection. Not exchanging names with the user one is communicating with can also add to the “thrill” of ChatRoulette, serving as a tool to make non-permanent and non-lasting connections.
The use of audio during ChatRoulette conversations was also rarely observed during fieldwork. ChatRoulette allows users to use different tools to communicate with one another, but it was extremely uncommon for users to speak using their voices during an encounter. During fieldwork, users would rarely provide direct responses to audio-related questions, such as the reason for why they chose not to use the audio feature or why they would not speak with their voices. Many users claimed that their audio did not work, even though the fieldworkers were speaking to them and were heard; others said that they simply preferred to type. Audio is a very convenient feature of ChatRoulette because it allows for faster communication, as compared to typing out everything one plans to say during the conversation. Hence, having another user within the ChatRoulette community hear one’s voice may be too intimate of an experience or may reveal too much of one’s personal identity. In addition, audio can merge with the idea of reality- if people are using ChatRoulette purely for the thrill of it, they may not want the encounter to feel as real as when they meet people in person. Fieldwork on ChatRoulette was very interesting because the website itself did not list what standard norms were, and furthermore, was not created specifically for sexual encounters. Findings from fieldwork show that users have renovated the website into a place where showcasing oneself through sexual expressions is extremely common.
Another norm found on ChatRoulette was for users to act as if they were not frequent or returning users of ChatRoulette. During fieldwork, not one user said that they would regularly go on ChatRoulette. Almost all interviewees told us that it was their first time on ChatRoulette and were only on the website because they were either bored or under the influence of a drug at the time. One user told us that he was on ChatRoulette because he had just watched an episode of the television show, South Park, which was based on internet social networking and included a segment on ChatRoulette. Moreover, our research found that many of the males that were interviewed became defensive when asked for their opinion on the amount of male sexual content that they encountered. Because there were three researchers conducting fieldwork together, it is possible that the interviewees felt intimidated when asked such a personal question by three females. Later, however, when one of the researchers did fieldwork individually, she experienced a much greater degree of flirtation and sexual intimacy coming from ChatRoulette users than when she was part of a group. This could suggest that degrees of intimacy on ChatRoulette are affected by the number of individuals within a single encounter.
Taking Intimacy too far, the dangers of ChatRoulette
Another article that corresponds to ChatRoulette is Jennifer L. Mnookin’s Virtual(ly) Law: The Emergence of Law in LambdaMOO (Mnookin 1996). In it, a LambdaMOO character “need in no way correspond to a person’s real life identity; people can make and remake themselves… choosing the details of their online presentation.” If users are presenting themselves in ways contrary to which they really are, it makes it difficult for them to get to know one another, therefore posing a problem for establishing intimate connections. Even though ChatRoulette has more than LambdoMOO’s text-based features and is able to use video cameras, users are able to hide their identities. Some people wear costumes or do not show their faces (Bilton 2010). A video camera does not hinder them from portraying themselves in the way they want to be seen. This can present problems.
An issue that arose in LambdaMOO, that has the potential to affect ChatRoulette, is the idea of law within the website. In LambdaMOO, some users wanted it to be “better defined, more structured, and increasingly formalized, while a number of other participants want[ed] it to become less formal and legalistic, or even hope to abolish it altogether.” If ChatRoulette adapts to the former, degrees of intimacy could become deeper. Or if it adapts to the latter, users may continue to hide behind costumes or express themselves sexually. Users would have to adapt to these changes of formalization. A few interviewees enjoyed the freedom they had on the website because they felt that they could not get in trouble or be associated with any of their actions. As ChatRoulette continues to grow, its creator will have to find ways to balance different users’ needs and this will further affect the levels of intimacy on the website.
There are some notable consequences to interacting with strangers on Chatroulette. Users may not be aware that their paired-stranger is recording them and knows where they live. “Chatroulettemap.com” is a new website where any individual can see pictures of the chatters with their geographic location, even down to street level view (Yablon 2010:1). One is even able to notice whether or not the chatter’s webcam is currently enabled. If a person were to access the webpage, he or she will see the disclaimer to the students at Maine University to stop using their names in their hostnames because this clear and straightforward user-identifiable information is extremely dangerous. It is too easy for impressionable, underage children to partake in the site, and with “Chatroulettemap.com,” the possible dangers are magnified with their location being available to predators. Child protection authorities and advocates are alarmed by the site and are trying to educate the public on the danger that the underage users of the site are in. Many of the users on ChatRoulette expose themselves in a sexual manner and furthermore, entice others to expose themselves as well. Numerous authorities have even deemed the site as a “predator’s paradise” (Miller 2010:1). Being recorded and located are not the only dangers of the site. Users are chatting (through audio, video, or text) on a website where rejection is simply the norm. They may not be able to cope with the constant rejection. These users are also engaging in extremely revealing behavior with strangers and this can lead to other harmful behaviors (Fox, Sokol 2010:1). Many authorities advise ChatRoulette users to use the site with extreme caution and underage children simply should not be able to use the site at all (currently, it is not very difficult for children to go on the site).
The concept of “Nexting” or being “Nexted” and Anonymity on Chatroulette
Chatroulette is very fast-paced oriented in that users are able to “next” their current conversation at any given time, connecting them to a new stranger. The concept of “nexting” is very common on the website and has much to do with the fact that people are able to automatically judge each other at first sight through the webcam function. Through our research, we found that there are certain emotions that are associated with being “nexted.” Through a study done by Sam Anderson from NYmag, the feeling of anxiety occurs every time the person on the screen reaches down to click the button. That feeling soon turns into the feeling rejection as he questions, “Why don’t they want to talk to me?” and only one person had the decency to type out “Too old” before “nexting” him (Anderson 2010). Anderson is thirty-two. The author concluded that the default interaction on Chatroulette is roughly three steps: assessment, micro-interaction, “next.” However, many people we interviewed agreed that clicking “next” is not so much a rejection as it was pure curiosity. People want to take a glimpse of and interact with the lives of numerous others around the world who are connected though this website. What is more, rejection in an online setting with strangers could sting less than rejection from a known other (Subrahmanyam et al 2004).
Moreover, Chatroulette’s anonymous feature (anonymity in this case is defined as the condition of not being identifiable to the other person). This allows an individual to act in a way he or she would not normally act. In “Can You See the Real Me?” the authors claim that anonymity online enables one to express oneself and behave in ways not available in one’s usual social sphere, both because “one is free of the expectations and constraints placed on us by those who know us, and because the costs and risks of social sanctions for what we say or do are greatly reduced (Bargh et al 2002). In this regard, interactions regarding levels of intimacy on Chatroulette can be viewed as conversations between “strangers on a train.” This is a scenario where one opens up and self-discloses intimate details to the stranger sitting in the next seat, details that one might never have told one’s colleagues at the office or even one’s family and friends back home (Bargh et al 2002). Anonymity on Chatroulette creates a veil under which people are not afraid to say what they think. This can be good because it can facilitate discussions that are likely to help discussants “deal with their feelings, find comfort from those who have had similar experiences, or acquire useful information (Johnson 1997).
Conclusion
Our research indicates that users of ChatRoulette enjoy the freedom of anonymity and ability to connect to strangers – a freedom granted to them through the release of some of the constraints in the physical world. Though the interviewees did not feel completely invulnerable to norms, evident by the different experiences had by researchers in a group compared to alone, there was certainly a malleability to social interaction. People could give whatever information they pleased, whether accurate or not, and seek reciprocation with the knowledge that any embarrassing situation can be removed with the click of a button and they could start anew. On this website, there is a thrill laced in this spontaneity and the ability to redefine intimacy to be completely ephemeral, it could be defined and lost in the same moment. This is in contrast to the physical world, where the concept of intimacy is typically built over time and involves a shared history. It is clear that as society continues to transform into a cyber-dominated world, the line between the physical world and the virtual world is becoming blurred, allowing people a type of duality in identity which mirrors the two spheres of life. Social networking enables global communication and freedom in identity but as the physical and virtual worlds become intertwined, it is uncertain how cyberspace will be able to preserve the thrills of its unmediated and redefined freedom.
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