Chatting.

So, on the radio on the drive home last night, I hear stories about online chatting, and how it can be dangerous for kids and whatnot. Being an investigative, curious sort of guy, I blow the dust of off Yahoo Chat and login.

It didn't make any difference where I went, or what I said or didn't say. Most people just entered and left the room without saying anything. If someone did actually say something, it was always something like "If you think (something) (is cool/sucks) type (some random digits)":

If you think Britney Spears sucks, type 123456!
If you think I'm cute, type 222!
If u think the Patriots r going to win the superbowl, type 99!

I didn't see a single response to any such plea, either.

If it wasn't that, it was seemingly random spoutings, mostly trying to get a rise out of someone else. People would just sort of voice their thoughts, but there wasn't much actual 2-way communication. Of course, with colors and various font-sizes, everything was all in day-glo letters, and HUGE ones at that. It didn't take me long to get bored and play Nethack.

I miss the days when the Internet was hard to use. It wasn't perfect, but filtering out people who were either too dumb or too impatient to actually find their way to a newsgroup or IRC chatroom greatly improved the so-called signal-to-noise ratio. Now, it's all spam, porn-ads, and 12 year olds (or those who act like 'em).

Now that I think more about it, I wonder if there's now a new sort of filter. Maybe the amount of trash that you need to wade through to find something meaningful (like, a chat room with a coherant conversation, or a newsgroup with actual discussions) is the thing that keeps people like me out. The immature newbs get stuck in the first layer, but to find real wealth takes some wading. Like pearl-diving in a septic tank.

Ugh.