The Chat Room

The Chat Room

As Dr. Barry Mowell of Broward Community College once put it,

"One of the most effective vehicles for wasting your time and

interacting with pre-pubescent or otherwise immature, rude people

who frequently engage in gross self aggrandizement and ill-

mannered behavior would be the internet chatroom." When I read

that six months ago, I ventured into a chat room for the first time. I

found that a chat room can be quite addicting. I have since chatted

on the internet every day with little exception.

Since I am a computer science major, I looked for chat about that

subject. On America Online, hereafter referred to as AOL, I found

that in the category "Special Interests" tech chat fit my requirements.

When I first went to it, I didn't know any of the abbreviations. In a

chatroom, in addition to talking about tech subjects, there is a

compelling desire to laugh. They express that as LOL, short for

laugh out loud. There also is ROFL, meaning rolling on the floor

laughing. There are other abbreviations, some utilizing profanity.

Essentially, over the last six months, I have begun to notice that

the people in the room can be classified into some simple

categories. These may be generalizations but are wholly accurate

and appear to encompass the entire spectrum of people who chat.

There are helpers, non-helpers, SNERTS, script kiddies, hackers,

and relationship seekers.

First of all, there are those who help people with their computer

questions. They seem to go to extraordinary lengths to do so, freely

assisting people with their computer questions very patiently.

Then there are those who help no one. Either they dont know how

to or simply refuse to help. Some of them may be termed smart

alecks because, when someone asks for help or a tech question,

they give rude and sometimes obnoxious answers. When someone

comes in the room and gets an answer like that, they frequently

leave.

Then there are what we term SNERTS (short for snot nosed

egotistical rude twerps). The name speaks for itself. The SNERT

is usually some small person who thinks they can hide behind the

computer screen and get away with being rude and annoying.

The next category is the script kiddie.