Just Like in "The Deer Hunter" But for Hipsters

What I meant by the awkward title is the deadly game of chance known as "Russian Roulette," which was the center of the 1978 film The Deer Hunter. I remembered watching that movie when I was little with my dad, not knowing what the plot line was about nor the concept of the game. My dad had to explain what "Russian roulette" was to me and I was a bit horrified. Now 32 years since the film's release, a new spin on the classic game of roulette by a Russian teenager hits the internet known as Chatroulette.

Chatroulette is a game of interactional chance on your computer. All you need is a webcam, and it brings you face-to-face to a world of strangers and potential new friends. The attention that the site has gotten is incredible. Celebrities are using it. Reporters are using it for their "articles." Creepers use it to creep. And hipsters use it because they think that it is cool as it breaks the boundaries of social media. A chatroulette party took place in a Brooklyn bar as the website was projected onto a big screen as patrons sat in auditorium-style seating and watched. Ben Folds used it in a segment of his concert as he serenaded users with his audience cheering him on. So is this site all that it is hyped up to be? I gave it a spin myself.

For a long time, I was scared to use the site. So for my first time, I made a few of my friends to go on it with me. As we huddled over my macbook, we explored the wild west of the internet. Together, we saw awkward teenage boys, awkward middle-aged men, random college students like us, musicians, blank screens, imperative writing on paper, and a few inappropriate images. We had a few conversations with people but we didn't know how genuine the other end was because we made up fake names for ourselves. Although a warning pops up when you first go the site about being over 16 and no pornography, no one follows that rule, which makes it kind of funny. My first time on chatroulette was a bit traumatizing because I would never look up some of these things up. Yet, my intrigue trumped that trauma and I went on it a second time but by myself.

My second run with the service was a bit disappointing. There were less conversations but more awkward moments. For many of the people that I came across, our conversation only lasted about 10 seconds as they automatically deemed me boring and clicked off to the next person. At first, I was offended bur frankly, I did the same thing. I did not want to have a conversation with a strange man, cradling his laptop in bed. It was much less awkward and more fun with a group of friends because you do not have to take it as seriously and you have other people to work with. Thus, despite the accessibility of the site to people around the world, human nature trumps as many people do not want to be face to face alone with a stranger.