'Intro?' That is the typical greeting these days whenever I hit an online chat room. Of course, I hardly get a whiff of attention whenever I use my typical male-sounding pseudonym, or 'nick'.
But whenever I call myself 'lonely_girl' or 'bored_chick', I will have at least six windows pop up on my screen within minutes of entering a room, with private messages that begin with 'Intro?' Not even a 'hi' - well sometimes a 'hello, why so lonely?' But most of the time they want to find out if I'm f/19/sg (a 19-year-old girl from Singapore).
You might wonder why I am posing as a 19-year-old female college graduate, when I am actually a 34-year-old father of three.
I did not go online to chat for such a long time, but I have been repeatedly told that it has become such a dangerous place for children. The last time I hung out at a moderated chat room, I made some pretty good friends - it was good, clean fun. That was 10 years ago.
So, as an experiment, I became re-acquainted with chat rooms using various personalities. And I have come to realise these days, the chat rooms are just full of sad blokes hiding behind the veil of anonymity, seeking potential prey. Cyber-sex is pass?. These guys want the real thing. As long as they think I am a young single girl, they will ask for my phone number, so they can call me. They ask me if I want to 'come out and have fun' with them that night. They ask me if I want to be their mistress, and get paid S$2,000 ($9,446) a month in return.
But perhaps I am generalising. Not all chat rooms are bad. Many people have found their life partners through internet chat rooms. These virtual environments are a great place to find people with similar interests and many of the regulars in certain rooms do meet occasionally in a group, in real life. Some of them go on to develop deeper relationships. Presumably, most of them are mature, discerning individuals who are simply there to make new acquaintances.