How is Random Video Chatting Different from Regular Conversations?

If you’ve never tried random video chatting for yourself, you might assume that it’s basically the same as talking to people in any other context. While that’s true to an extent, there are plenty of factors that make random chatting a lot different.

For one thing, people tend to be more open when they’re random chatting. If you’re on Camsurf, you’ll quickly discover how blunt people can be. This may not be a positive thing 100% of the time, but even if you get some overly honest feedback on the color of your curtains, it can still be a nice break from the passive-aggressive tendencies of some real-life conversation partners. 

How is Random Video Chatting Different from Regular Conversations?

We’ll get into the specifics below, but here’s the summary: it’s just easier to let your hair down when you’re random chatting. Whether you’re constantly toning down your dark humor to avoid offending someone, or you have to pretend to like someone just to keep the peace, it can be exhausting to keep up with the many demands of real-life interactions. If you’re random chatting, however, you can focus less on making everybody happy, and more on having a good time.

• You don’t have to worry about keeping up appearances

Being socially acceptable is a pretty big deal for most people. Everybody has a different threshold, but they’ll usually let you know when you’ve crossed a line. Whether it’s putting your elbows on the table or borrowing stuff without asking, nobody likes it if you have more lenient standards than they do.

If you’re random video chatting, though, it’s assumed that most chat partners aren’t going to have the exact same standards as you. Plus, some things that are considered taboo in real life are common practice on chat sites. For example, how would you react if you were talking with someone, and they left as you were in the middle of a sentence? That depends. If it happened in the real world, you’d probably be a bit offended. But what about on a chat site? In this case, it’s something that everyone does, and nobody bats an eye. 

This may look like the breakdown of morals and good behavior, but the reality is that it’s just convenient. People go to random chat sites for entertainment, so if they’re spending time on a chat that isn’t fulfilling that purpose, they’re doing it wrong. Apply this mindset to most other forms of social behavior, and you have the ground rules of random video chatting. 

• There’s less pressure to change for other people

For better or for worse, random video chatting comes with the freedom to express yourself in many different ways. Some people use this as an opportunity to misbehave and generally act chaotic, while most of them finally have the chance to speak their minds. 

There are obviously scenarios in which you shouldn’t share everything that’s on your mind, but at least you know that you can set the rules for your own behavior. The two exceptions would be 1) sharing information that could compromise your identity, and 2) acting in a way that violates the chat site’s terms of use. Fortunately, that still leaves you with a lot of flexibility in the way you interact with your chat partners. Will you reveal yourself as a blossoming extrovert who just doesn’t get out enough? Maybe you’ll find someone who shares your love for obscure Japanese anime. Whatever you end up talking about, now it can be on your terms.

• It’s a lot easier to get a chat going

The tricky thing about real-life conversations is that sometimes, the person you’re talking with isn’t actually interested. This is in sharp contrast to random video chats, where everyone on the site is literally there to talk with strangers. You won’t get weird looks for trying to talk to someone or drag your way through a conversation that the other person clearly doesn’t want to participate in. If you and your chat partner decide to stick around for that particular chat, it’s a given that you both want to talk with each other. After all, if you didn’t, one of you would simply switch to the next chat. 

• There’s one feature that could reduce social anxiety

Just because someone’s on a random chat site doesn’t mean they’re an extrovert; sometimes, random chat users will visit the site to work on their social anxiety. 

How does this even work? Well, it’s all thanks to one button – the one that says “next chat”. It’s the feature that’ll take you from one chat to the next – and the next and the next. In other words, it means that you get infinite second chances, no matter how many times you feel like you’ve “messed up” an interaction. If you already know that you won’t have to stick around for the aftermath of some unwitting gaffe, it could be easier to chill out and focus on what’s actually happening at the moment. 

• You can talk to all the chat partners you want

This probably seems like an obvious point to make, but it turns out that this can have some positive effects on the way you approach your chats. Think about how things often happen in the real world. When you meet someone new, do you feel like you have to try extra hard because you don’t know when the next opportunity will occur? It’s pretty much the opposite on a random chat site – you can meet your next chat partner just a second or two after you click the “next chat” button.

It isn’t necessary to be an awesome conversationalist to enjoy random video chatting.

Whether you’ve always been gregarious, or you’re a die-hard introvert, you can still enjoy yourself on a random chat site. Maybe you’ll experience a few of the benefits mentioned above, or maybe you’ll discover new ones as you explore the random chats. Whatever happens, just remember that you’re doing it to have fun!