Omegle
Friday, October 2, 2009 by Sergio
Omegle is a website that facilitates conversations between strangers. Connect to the site and you will be paired up with someone else who is connecting to the site simultaneously. Conversations occur in an instant messenger style format.
I decided to do a breakdown of some of the "types" you might encounter when using Omegle, common motivations and that sort of thing.
Many who use the site are searching for romance or sex, and will disconnect immediately if they find out -and are unhappy with- the gender of their conversational partner. One stranger I conversed with even claimed it was their fantasy to have sex with someone they met on Omegle.
Some "strangers" are only willing to talk to people sharing specific traits with them. They will likely open conversations asking if you like something, and disconnect if you don't like it, or don't know it. Omegle is also crawling with trolls, who find humour in tricking, insulting, manipulating, etc. others using the site. I find this unsurprising given that Omegle provides such an anonymous environment.
Then there are those who you'd genuinely enjoy talking to, which is for me a very small percentage. I often exchange contact details with these people in order to keep in touch with them. However, almost invariably I fall out of contact with these people who were so interesting to talk to. Omegle seems to aid me in forming weak ties, even though these aren't the ties I set out (or even really want) to make.