Musings Archive

Chat Room Voyeur (08/09)

If there is anyone out there that needs a good research project and wants to study human nature on the internet, I have a deal for you! Join the online game site Pogo, find a Solitaire room that has an active chat, and just sit and watch the text go by.

It fascinates me to see what people are willing to chat about in a room of total strangers. You are told all about the diseases, illnesses and handicaps (or is it challenges) with which they are dealing. There are discussions about prescriptions, homeopathic methods, holistic healing…a lot of suggested remedies. It can get very graphic, so if you have an aversion to the mentioning of body fluids, you have been warned!

You “hear” about the time someone was in prison, or the fact that a relative has been arrested for abuse, theft, or drugs, both using and/or dealing. What is nice is that most responses are positive and supportive. I have never seen another chatter joke about or put down someone that offers a life struggle like being imprisoned. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons they open up so easily in this particular chat environment.

There are the lonely people. The ones that somehow make their comments drip with sadness. I always hope that for some, the chat room is truly a source of comfort and assurance that someone cares, even if that someone is a complete stranger. It’s nice to see a chatter’s attitude change for the better just from what others say to them. For some others, if they push too far and continue the sob stories and comments, you unfortunately give a sigh of relief when they leave the room. There is nothing that anyone can post to make them feel better, for whatever is offered is turned into a more morose reason to lament life. It can get pretty silly sometimes and occasionally the patience of the room is capped.

You get the couples that have “hooked up” and gush, argue, accuse and make up all in the solitaire chat room. Makes you wonder why they don’t use the option of privately chatting, hmmm? ;)

The political or religious discussions can get very heated. I usually end up leaving the room once one of these starts, because I’ve never seen one not dissolve into a personal bashing fest.

The ones that concern me are when people give out personal information. I’ve seen first and last names with phone numbers, addresses, ages of children, where they will be at such-and-such o’clock etc. Call me paranoid, but this is a public chat room. If I am seeing what they are writing, so is everybody else. Perhaps because family and friends frequently meet up in these chat rooms, the reality of public eyes watching is diminished or forgotten.

People from all over the world communicate within these game chat rooms. Not only do you get to sharpen your Solitaire card skills, but you can be a fly on the wall in someone’s game room. Does anyone offer a degree in game room chat psychology?