Chatroulette

I tried chatroulette with as open of a mind as I possibly could after hearing rumor after rumor about the pervert's who stalk the site. I've only been on this site once or twice a few years back when the site started but even back than I only used it for group entertainment never to actually meet anyone. My previous times on the site ended with an over abundance of private parts with no one actually having any interest in meeting people other than the chance of having some sexual relief/gain. I tried coming in with a different mentality this time around and although it was a class assingment I thought I might actually meet some people worth getting to know. And it started off like that; this time was different at least at first. There was a lot of older gentleman eager to start conversations with me even without having my video feed showing. I met a pretty cool guy from denmark and we chatted for a few minutes until he starting asking, barely begging to see a live video feed of me. I understand his request. It's more than reasonable to want to see the face of who your talking to but I the whole idea of the website of me and with a simple press of the "next" button our conversation ended. As much as I tried to engage as many people who weren't flashing me or touching themselves in conversation the overall stigma I've gotten from the website enabled me to actually talk to somone long enough to actually get to know them. It's unfortunate I succombed to my preconcived notions of the website because in theory chatroulette is a very intriquiging concept. The idea of clicking a button and getting a chance to video with a random person around the world is fascinating but to me it wasn't worth sorting through all the seedy people first to get there. Overall the experience was enough to not have me going back anytime soon. Although the idea of the website is in good spirit, the reality of it and how its been widely used is a shame.

Chatroullete

Chatroullete was once a website where you could video-chat with other users at random. Now, Chatroullete has become something way worse. I have not used it since its "15 minutes of fame" so when I logged on recently I was very taken back by what I saw. I felt like I was going through a rotation of strange older men, European grandparents, and perverted guys. It was pretty gross and I really didn't enjoy my experience on the website this time. The only people I met on Chatroullete that I would consider to be "normal" would be two musicians. After many clicks of the next button, I found one guy who was holding a guitar. He introduced himself and told me he was from Virginia and a music student at UVA. He then asked me how the Wisconsin winters were. I hadn't realized that Chatroullete automatically shares your location with the person you're chatting with, and it really creeped me out that he knew where I was without me saying anything, so I hit him with the quick "Next". After a couple more weird older guys, I found a relatively younger man who was playing piano. He asked me if I wanted to hear a song, and I said sure. I wish I had said no. His song was one of the worst things I've ever heard; he couldn't even rhyme and I'm not sure if he really knew how to even play his instrument.

I had had enough of Chatroullete and decided to sign off. Overall, I wasn't too pleased with my experience on the site. I've been on Chatroullete in the past and had very different experiences, but none as bad as this one. I think the idea and framework of the site works great, but too many users abuse it. I think there are too many invasions of privacy, and nothing stopping any user of exposing themselves to you. Back when there were less weirdos on the site, Chatroullete was way more popular.

Chatroulette

I had been on chatroulette a couple of times before, and I felt this experience was almost identical to the other experiences I have had on the website. Almost everyone I video chated with was either a pervert, musician, elderly foreign man, or other infrequent chatroulette users who were on the site looking for what has become the stereotypical chatroulette experience. The two musicians I chated with were actually very tallented. One was a trumpet player, and the other was a guitarist. I also chated with a freestyle rapper who made a rap about my name and location. I told the rapper my name, which probably wasnt very smart of me, but I was also a bit rattled that your location is shown to every person you chat with.
Overall my experience on chatroulette was pretty weird. I deffinitley think the idea of a randomized video chat site is a good idea, but with all the strange people in the world chatroulette has become just another hotspot for perverts.

i-dosing

I tried out an i-dosing video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhQhPasj25k). I was skeptical of these before watching it, and boy how my opinion has changed! Nah, not really. Nothing happened. It was just a bunch of clicky noises that got annoying after a while. It seems ridiculous that anyone could believe that this would work, and especially ridiculous that this would cause a "technopanic." This seems like the kind of thing that some kids started a rumor about, and people who knew little/nothing about the internet heard about it and decided it was a threat to society. The only bad that comes from this video is the fact that it's annoying.

I-doser Trial

So, I watched a couple of the wannabe I-doser videos on youtube and, as others have said, didn't really experience any effects (although I appreciated some of the cool visuals in the videos). I had heard of i-doser before and realize that the videos on youtube aren't really the same thing as what you get when you purchase tracks from i-doser.com. So I wasn't too surprised that nothing happened from watching the youtube video. 

Next, I took a look at some videos of people's supposed reactions to the real i-doser tunes. Most of the ones that had any significant effect looked fake, and the one "real" one I found the guy just had a couple twitches that didn't seem like a big deal to me. From this I would hypothesize that i-doser maybe has some interesting music and sounds on their tracks, but it is not anything that would literally get you high.

Blog 3: Chatroulette Experience

Prior to this Chatroulette experience I was about to engage in, I reflected on a few years ago when a group of my friends got onto Chatroulette to see what all the hype was regarding this "new" chat site. Although we knew it was likely we would be seeing perverts exposing themselves or "creepers" out looking for their next victim, we also saw many other types of people. Even so, we randomly saw a group of guys we knew from UW, just on there for pure entertainment, like us. I was excited this time around to take a different approach at this website and actually dig deeper than just clicking through to see who was on!

When I jumped on the site this time around, I didn't expose my face. I wanted to see, rather, who would hang around long enough to actually get to know me. The first guy I landed on, pictured on the right (yes, I know, creepy that I screenshot these people but I thought it'd help in my explanation). He was from Athens, Greece and we engaged in a bit of small talk before I got into asking him about himself. As our conversation continued, we connected on a surprisingly interesting level. He was studying abroad in Athens, while I had studied abroad in Barcelona. He wanted to know about different places I had visited and my favorite clubs in Europe (he had just got home from clubbing, 7 AM his time... late night!) After about 5 minutes of conversation I politely told him I needed to move on, but hoped he would find what he was looking for on Chatroulette in his next few encounters - he responded with "love"! That's when I clicked the "next" button and said, NEVER again would I spend that much time on one person on this site... I wish I had stuck to my gut and clicked next immediately.

The next people included: a few creeps (even a few half clothed), quite a few "odd balls", and a lot of college kids laughing and having a few cocktails. That's when I pushed the button one last time and the guy on the right popped up. He was a United States boy, singing a tune to me - not even knowing I was female, he sang about his "love for me". Again, I should have hit "next" faster. He was attempting to serenade me, but I was far from feeling it. As I awaited to see what would happen next, all he did was continue singing - that's when again, the "next" button came in handy. I decided I had experienced enough.

In reflection of my experience, everything seemed to hold true to my initial stereotypes of this website. Not only did I encounter a mass of creeps and people I'd never hope to encounter on a personal level, but I also found people like me - those streaming through just to check what this site was all about. What I found most intriguing were people's instinct to push "next" immediately upon me not having a photo. While this makes sense, it goes to show how much people judge on the image of someone or lack of, rather than their personality or their need to feel secure. Then I realized, I personally wouldn't probably begin conversing with someone without knowing they looked somewhat "normal" either, just because of the stigma that comes along with this site and other online chat rooms. While I may not have had the openness I should've entering this site, I think I got the just of what this site entails - a variety of individuals, with a variety of initiatives, in one large chat room. It's safe to say my thoughts were confirmed and I will not be visiting this site any time soon, rather, I probably will never visit it again!

I-Dosing

I had never heard of I-Dosing before hearing it mentioned as one of the options to blog about.  Since I was familiar with the MySpace panic and had braved Chatroulette before, I decided to see what I-Dosing was all about.  The gist of it is that the videos, through the images and sound, are supposed to replicate the effects of recreational drugs.

I tried to keep an open mind while watching the videos throughout.  While watching, I became almost mesmerized by the imagery and I think the music that accompanied it (some shoddy club music) seemed to fit.  When I was watching, I was pretty relaxed, but after it ended, I wasn't left with a high of any kind.  Instead, the only thing I really took away from it was a headache.  I guess if people can get a high from them, then they've found a thrifty way to get high.

Post #3, Chatroulette

I had never actually used chatroulette before, and all I knew about it was what I heard from the friends of mine who had used it a few years ago when it was first popular. The aspect that got brought up the most was the likelihood of seeing perverts exposing themselves on their webcams, apparently in search of others like themselves.
When I actually used the site for this class, I was lucky enough to avoid any of those unwanted peep shows, and got to see how the site was basically one big social experiment.
The most interesting aspect to me was that you can decide to switch to a different chat session at any point. So even if you've passed through nine creeps, three old people, and five oddly-dressed cats, just to find one person or group that you think is worthy of your brief companionship, they can pass you right by with one click of the mouse. This ability to reject/pass over someone so easily has implications for societal standards and what people think makes someone else worthy of their time and interaction. Practically all the markers of this worthiness on chatroulette are material-- how attractive people are, what they're wearing, the appearances of the rooms they're in.
I, for one, was always sure to pass by people before they had the chance to do it to me. It didn't matter a whole lot for me what the person looked like, though occasionally there would be people who looked college-aged, and I thought they might have been doing something similar to what I was doing. So I'd give it a second or two of us staring at each other and passing judgement through our computer screens before I'd hit the button and move on to the next fleeting relationship. I might not have had the right attitude of "openness" one needs when using a site like chatroulette, and I think the site is now rather narrow in its type of users-- perverts, kids trying it out for the first time, and bored people looking for some "fun". Oh, and of course college students in internet studies classes.

Chatroulette

A lot has changed on chatroulette since I first heard about it as a freshman. A couple years ago the layout was extremely stripped down and basic with no moderation or interactive features other than a chat box and the webcam viewer. Now, it automatically informs you where the other person is from, and allows you to interact with a sketchpad and archive a history of the chat logs. (Not sure why anyone would ever do this.) It also offers a premium service you can pay for to get more features. However, the essential idea of chatroutlette is the same: use the internet's global-ness to access random webcams from around the world. In reality however, it doesn't take too long to realize everyone isn't participating in it to "connect with the world." After clicking through it for 15 minutes, about 2/3's of the people I found were shirtless men who upon seeing me immediately clicked next, while the rest were a mixture of curious people of all ages, mixed with large groups of drunk russian teenagers, mixed with guys with masks on sitting in a dark room.

I've always found the concept of this site interesting because it takes advantage of the internet's global presence to provide people with an unfiltered, raw way of looking at people in different parts of the world. For better or for worse, you can examine a small sample of the online world in a completely uncensored way.

Blog Post 3: I-Doser

I have really never heard of i-dosing before and after learning more about it I was very skeptical about its effects people. After listening and viewing a few of the i-doser videos myself (here is one of them), my reaction is just as I suspected: it's all talk.

After watching a few of the videos the only effect I had was a headache from listening to annoying club music and watching over stimulating visual effects. I didn't really like the videos and see no point in why people watch them. I guess it's a cheaper and safer alternative than illegal drugs, but I don't really see the effect. It seems that the videos could be for people who are already on drugs and want to get a better "high", but being sober it didn't do much for me.

Blog 3: i-dosing video

For the third blog assignment, I listened to one of the i-dosing videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhQhPasj25k). To get the highest effect, I listened to it with my eyes closed and trying to stay as comfortable as possible. The  video did not really come across to me with different annoying sounds...I did not get high; rather, I thought the track from the video was very annoying and disturbing.
I have heard of i-doser before, but this is the first time that I actually experienced it. I am skeptical of the effects that are anticipated in i-dosers,  since I did not feel any emotional effect. I think i-dosing tracks represent an interest phenomenon that we see on the internet, however. Internet has become one of the platforms available to people in getting vicarious satisfaction through virtual life. I-doser is the proof of that attempt, since it is produced to fulfill people's curiosity towards drugs.

Blog 3 Caitlin Lundquist

I listened to one of the i-dosing videos on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhQhPasj25k. Other than the fact that the video was extremely annoying to listen too I felt no adverse affects while listening to the music. I did read on Wikipedia that some beat mixes can affect different aspects of mental performance and mood, but that there have been no formal studies.

I am pretty skeptical about the entire idea of i-dosing and before this assignment had never actually heard of i-dosing. I choose to look into them mostly because chat roulette seems like a strange activity for a Sunday night and because I never had a MySpace and didn’t really know how to navigate the site. Overall, I think most things on the internet, including technopanics, of any kind require viewer discretion and if you want something bad enough on the internet you can either get it or make yourself believe you did.

Memory Lane on Myspace

Well seeing as how I've always had a bad experience with Chatroulette, I decided to go the nostalgic route and check out 15 random Myspace pages instead. Well, first off I can say that not a lot seems to have changed since I stopped using it a long time ago. Of all the profiles I looked at, both male and female, all users were around 20 years old. I think the oldest I saw was 30 years old. What shocked me the most was that half of the profiles I looked at were of people who were online at that time, but to be honest I thought no one used it anymore...What's more is that under the search I changed the preferences to bring up only those new to myspace, and there were actually a lot...

After having gotten used to facebook in the past few years, looking at the myspace pages reminded me of how much different the site was in terms of customization and what-not. Almost all of the pages were blinged-out with banners, glittery gifs, and the like. Some also sported the new (not sure how new since I haven't been on in forever) layout, which I personally am not fond of (though it seems to have a sort of facebook-ish look...hmm). Even though facebook seems to have taken over, it appears that myspace is still alive and kicking.

I-doser Video & Music

In the words of Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon, “What the what?” I think this is sufficient enough to describe my feelings toward the i-doser video that I watched (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfpxz3_i-doser-crack_fun). Afterwards I had no feeling or sensation of being high, not that I would know what being high is like. Despite my negative reaction towards the i-doser video, I did find some i-doser music on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/idoserworks) and was incredibly annoyed the moment I started listening to it. I listened for at least five minutes before deciding that I couldn’t stand it any more. It felt very abrasive and intrusive, which is most likely its intent. I find it very interesting that some people had reactions to i-doser music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHofB8SGYc&feature=related). It just seems absolutely ridiculous and that most likely people were reacting in odds due to the tone of the music and its effect on the ears. I think I would need solid scientific evidence to believe in the effects of i-doser videos and music.