The Chat Room

It is said chat rooms began in the 1990s. They are a room online, often grouped by age or interest.  The former is exclusive to one age group as bots come in and out.  Senior chat rooms tend to be people fifty and over.  Some of the bots are kids, some are people of nefarious backgrounds.

They attract a lot of different personalities.  The isolated either by personality, geography or both frequent chat rooms.  People living on the fringes, unhappy people, sexual predators and people of that ilk can also be found there. Then there are people, nice people who just want to make friends.  These are the people who have the hardest times in the chat rooms.  Sometimes they are picked on by the bullies who come in to start trouble.  Often they don't say a word, nor stand up to those who are bullied.  They leave quietly - without any complaints.

Some chat rooms have monitors that volunteer their time in the rooms.  Most bring their own agenda, personality quirks and prejudices with them.  Charged often with the removal of bullies, sometimes they are the bullies themselves.

I checked out a few of these rooms.  As a trained sociologist, I wanted to see how group behavior would handle these difficult personality types.  I had no formed hypothesis.  I just wanted to participate and to observe.

50Plus is based in Germany.  It is 'monitored' by a Brit.  He seems a friendly enough fellow at first.  He also seems to delight in watching room bullies insult people.  Few stand up. He does not.

There is Buzz50 run by a British husband/wife team who allegedly met online.  They have an assortment of 'monitors' who have their own social agenda.  It appears they are not too keen on Americans.  They do not self-police their monitors who often run awry. The owner continually asks for money and donation of 'points' to allegedly help run the business.   Still, the bullies seem more limited in this room, but this writer found the worst of all was a female monitor. A male monitor put up a pin up photo of a woman. Nothing was done.  It is censorship at will. At best.

321chat has monitors as well.  They are untrained, uneven in their monitoring and allow abuse, foul language and have a sizeable drinking population.  The room says it is a senior room for people typically aged thirty and over.  One monitor is just thirty-five and has no ability or personality to stand up to the bullies.  Another monitor bullies the men.

I also was appalled that so many allow bullying and few stand up.  Perhaps it is typical of the world in which we live.  That is not a world where this writer is comfortable.  It takes a village to create peace.  It surely can not be found in some of the rooms I observed.