I was introduced to this delirious attempt at a new social networking medium on the same day it seems as the rest of the population. It wasn’t via the New York Times article that had everyone else going mad over its general premise, rather an equally adventurous friend of mine who passed over the link with a confusing word of caution: “its like rapid fire video chat with random strangers. People are weird, naked, or on drugs”.  So do I get my choice of weird, naked, or on drugs?

After witnessing what the site really is about, I’m shocked at the lack of effort required to participate in this virtual fiesta. Just type in the URL, click ‘Play’ to begin this so-called “game”, and instantaneously you are face to face with a complete and utterly disturbed stranger staring back at you seething with a sense of self-normalcy that you can’t really make sense of.  It made me feel funny inside like nothing on the internet has before. Even more than guyswithiphones.com

Having absolutely no hesitation to investigate sites such as the above (which was introduced to me by my gay co-workers in the first place) at work, I URL’d the shit out of the link and was brought to an under nourished site with little to offer on the information front.  You don’t really have a clue what you’re supposed to do, or what you’re supposed to expect.  The site took forever to load, which I now attribute to the NYT article bringing an influx of curious East Coasters.  Here I was thinking I was for once ahead of a new media trend, and frustrated with the constant crashing of my browser because of my own curiosity, when in fact I was only as cool as the 600,000 online readers that visited the NYT.

I was persistent in my efforts and estimate that I used approximately 83 minutes of my company’s time (spread out thoroughly) attempting to get a better gage of what the fuck this site’s objective was. When I was actually able to connect with other users (about once every 6 browser restarts), I almost (almost) regret it.

My first friend was a mid-life gentleman, sitting in a small room with a dingy white wall behind him. He had a borderline (and I’m sure accidental) handle-bar mustache.  Visions of cold, lonely middle America flashed and danced in my mind as assumptions of a pimpled pale pot belly and a piece of neon shaded lawn furniture as a desk chair became a reality.

I quickly hit ‘Next’.  My insides jumped again as a young boy, who I’m not convinced hits the required age restriction of 16, dropped in on my screen. I didn’t stay on any person for more than a second or two, and hid half of my face off-screen on account of the dramatic level of discomfort I felt.  This discomfort stemmed from not only these whackjobs having a goggle at my face, but also my third arrival who was whacking off, stark naked and standing, right into his webcam.

So what’s the point?  Better yet, where does whoever developed this site think it’s going?  And how in the world do they think it’s going to become anything more than a brief internet sensation in which people like me write 1000 words on what a valiant contribution the creator has made to the unceasing destruction of society, youth and human relationships?