So you’re all caught up on the cultural phenomenon that is Chatroulette. And I’ve explained just how Princeton works in the mix. About how people think of Princetonians as these people quite literally locked away in an ivory tower, which is awkward because, do they even make towers made of ivory anymore?
But anyway, you’re meeting all these strange people and you think to yourself, Wouldn’t it be weird if I came across someone I knew? Someone… from Princeton?
“Oh hey ‘that guy’ in precept” — NEXT. “Yikes, girl who was sloshed last night and sang ‘Don’t Stop Believin” at the top of her lungs” — NEXT. “Professor?” — NEXT.
Not so for [REDACTED!] ’11 and Libby van Beuren ’11, and Matt de Jonge ’10. Yes, apparently these three (friends, Chatroulette’ing on separate accounts with no idea the other was doing so) found each other. On the site. When 16,216 users from all around the world were logged on.
From the comfort of Foulke, van Beuren and [REDACTED!] Next’d their way through their first awkward minutes of Chatroulette when…
“We found Matt and his frat bros after about 15 minutes, and Libby almost nexted them until I screamed and grabbed the computer,” [REDACTED!] wrote in an email. “I think she thought I had seen something disgusting, but it was in fact only the face of [our friend].”
I’m not entirely sure what the odds are of this happening but something tells me they are really, really small. Tiny. I’d venture even microscopic.
“I think we were all caught between hysterically laughing at the odds of seeing someone we knew and reeling from embarrassment of actually being on the website,” [REDACTED] added.
Chatroulette: awkward, even when you find your damn friends on it.
[Ed. Note: When asked to comment for this post, de Jonge replied with a long narrative that could only be described as “erotic fiction.” We’re PG-13 here, but if you’re into that, it comes highly recommended.]
[Ed. Note, 3/10/10: A previous version of this post included the name of [REDACTED!], until some Internet creepers prompted the person’s requests to take it down.]
I saw someone I knew on Chatroulette within my first hour of using it. It was weird that a guy I attend university with who lives right across town should wind up on my screen. Of course he and the gaggle of women he was with disconnected after a short chat to continue their quest for steams of penises.
I have had a similar situation. The very first time I went on the site Omegle, I met someone who I was distantly connected to. We first figured out that we lived in the same state, and after a while of talking, we figured out that we knew the same people. It definitely wasn’t fake though because he suggested names of people I might know first. We didn’t hand out our names or any other information after this and vowed not to contact each other ever again. It made both of us so paranoid.
So, My first time ever on Chatroulette I meet a group of people from the town right next to me. Turns out that I knew two of the people in the group, they invited me to the party they were at, but I declined due to the fact that it was 3:00 am. small world hu?