Chat Rooms

Chat rooms are online “rooms” that are also considered as on-line communities if the same chatters visit these “rooms” on a regular basis. Some chat rooms are based on interest. For example, a moderator could create a chat room strictly for dog lovers, gun owners, car enthusiasts. So the over all denominator is clear. And the predominant topic of conversation is expected already. This also creates a culture in the chat rooms. An on-line community of a particular interest, when they meet regularly on-line creates their common codes, limitations, norms, and understanding. They can also organize events either via on-line (OL) or in real life (IRL).

Some chat rooms are business oriented. The usual business companies that utilize chat room technology are the broadcasting companies. They create on-line communities to cater to the avid fans and viewers of their shows and artists. This has led to a sub-culture in chatting called: “Live Chat”. In live chats, artist themselves find time (supervised by the project manager or supervising producer of the show or the live chat itself) to go on-line and chat with their fans, supporters, and avid viewers. Live chats are also being televised to create a separate show. So, it means that the fan or viewer knows that her conversation with the artist is being aired on national and public TV. Some TV programs don’t air this, but instead of using an artist, they have a team of writers who are familiar with the personality and schedule of the artist, and they pose as the artist themselves. This is an idea of one type of chat rooms that are rampant nowadays.

Getting-to-know-you chat rooms and dating chat rooms have collected notorious images over the past decade because of the crime and violence reported that are related and connected to the relationships stemming out of these type of chat rooms. Some organized criminals and experience criminals used these chat rooms to take advantage of vulnerable chatters who are only wanting a sincere relationship. Many documentaries have warned these chatters not to trust strangers found in chat rooms. They have also exposed the bad side of chatting that caused the decline of chatters or at least the time chatters spend chatting in chat rooms.