Textual Relations

Are you bored by your real friends? If you’re in desperate, desperate need of human contact--and by “contact” I don’t mean physical contact, but rather an anonymously arranged Internet chat with a complete stranger—then have I got the place for you!

Omegle.com offers “a brand-new service for meeting new friends” in which the site randomly selects another user and sets you up in a one-on-one chat. As they remind you, “chats are completely anonymous, although there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like.” Fair enough.

This site was discovered by my friend-of-a-friend Seth. Let’s see what magic unfolds when Seth gives Omegle a try:

Stranger: Hi!
Seth: hi
Stranger: from?
Seth: Louisiana, you?
Stranger: Indonesia
Seth: dot or feather?
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Oops! Looks like Seth might have pissed off his new potential friend. He’d better keep watch on the Omegle blog, which is bound to have a cultural sensitivity entry coming soon.

Enjoy! If you try Omegle and get anything interesting, be sure to let me know in the comments section.