Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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Couldn't you have offered some permanent contact such as social network profile to remain in contact with that human?
Facebook was too new/personal and MySpace was basically already dead. There were few other forums that were "universal".
AOL was popular but I never got on it. IRC was good but complicated for people not on it. Everything else was basically forums, so if you were lucky and they had Gaia Online or IMVU then maybe you'd have a chance.
Personally, I think that whole idea is what made Omegle have great potential. The fleeting experience of brief friendships are far less common today than they used to be. How many playdates did you have with friends that only ever happened maybe 5 times total? How many people on planes or travel busses did you converse with, never to see or hear from again? This is the human experience and in a way it's still there but now it's just "ghosting" because you "can" stay in contact.
I dunno. Personally I think the guy I met on a plane at 13 who is still reaching out to me on Facebook over a decade later is kinda weird, regardless of intent at this point, and I could see Omegle having the same issue in that regard.
All this said - email was pretty safe and I was surprised it wasn't utilized more often for this purpose. It was a legitimate issue for online friends back in the day when it probably didn't need to be, lol.