The Resurrection of Anonymity? Voyeurism? Narcissism?
When I started doing stuff on the Web in 1994-5, I was obsessed with meeting new people. Email was great for connecting with folks you knew, but I thought the future lied in services like chat rooms, message boards, groups, personals and places where I could forge new relationships rather than continue old ones.
For a while, my obsession was right on - services like I described above exploded - but not for everyone. Geeks and losers (myself being Exhibit A) used these services, and between the years of 1996-1999 I think I must have met virtually all of 'em in some random dark corner of the web. But a large percentage of my friends - i.e., the ones who had social lives outside of the Internet - looked at me like, well, like I was a loser to spend my days connecting to people I didn't know when there was a world of relationships that needed tending.
Then, as the new century dawned, social media grew up, and by limiting one's social circle (and increasing penetration of the web, and a thousand other reasons), the stigma of meeting new people / losers online faded, and products like Six Degrees, Friendster, MySpace and ultimately Facebook made communicating online more acceptable. Basically, the addition of exclusivity and walls, which perhaps better imitated real life, made it socially acceptable to gather together online.
Fast-forward to 2010, and the rise of 2 new services that have me scratching my head. The first, Chatroulette, has already been covered in depth in the 2 weeks since it launched, but most of the focus has been on the pornography rather than the anonymity aspects of the service. I get Chatroulette - but I get it because I'm a voyeur, and I like sticking my nose in other people's business. Little did I know that I'm not alone.
The second service, Formspring.me, is basically Chatroulette in text form. Formspring allows you to create a profile and then people can anonymously ask you questions. Yes, it's that simple. And 27 MILLION people are currently using it. I haven't dug into all of the mechanics behind it, but apparently you can just ask anyone between the ages of 12-25 about it and they'll know. As Gawker says, it's basically Truth Or Dare for the Internet. Apparently, it's being used as a place to randomly insult people without consequences, find out answers to the questions you don't have the guts to ask in real life, etc.
Before you shrug both of these products off as stupid teenage prank sites, take a second to think about the power of voyeurism and being a part of the lives of random strangers. These products are perfect depictions of a core human want - curiosity - and they've managed to bottle that in simple, primitive ways that have resonated with not just teens but many adults too. I, for one, am envious of any site that can so clearly touch human beings at their core.
Are we in the midst of a re-birth of random, oddball web personal interactions? Maybe, maybe not. These sites have huge pitfalls - I actually worry less about the pornography on Chatroulette and more about the abuse and hatred that Formspring can enable, especially for teenagers. And I can't imagine any easy way that a site that caters to teens and porn is monetizable. But as a human social experiment, look no further than these sites to understand what makes us tick.
Find my Formspring page here.
(Ed note: Formspring is apparently a completely legit business form company. Um...how weird that they're powering the most popular teenage phenomenon since Britney Spears?)
