BBC - h2g2 - Chat Rooms

My parents constantly remind me of their firm belief that chat rooms, innocent as they may seem, are the hunting grounds of 60-year-old weirdoes who's only joy in life is to find teenage girls like me, stalk and harass them. Personally, I don't know any 60 year olds who even own a computer or have Internet access. Chat rooms are nothing more than the bored and lazy American's way of talking to people who they don't know or care about. Incessant jabbering and nonsensical, frivolous discussions are quirks of all chat rooms, so why are they so much fun? They quench the natural urges we all have for easy communication and embarrassment-free antics. Maybe some people take it to the extreme, but most just want to chat.

In a chat room, you're really not in anything at all; you're slumped in your computer chair reading nonsensical phrases of conversation fly by as the screen scrolls down automatically. People with good imaginations have an easier time with chat rooms. It takes a lot of creativity to remove yourself from your cluttered computer desk with papers and CDs strewn everywhere, into a world that is made up by imaginations of everyone in the room. Your fantasy life can come true, and you can do or be whatever you want with no fear or embarrassment, since nobody knows who you really are. Chatters take on aliases or nicknames to disguise their true identities, But in most chat rooms, that just doesn't happen; usually, you're stuck with a bunch of bored people with no imaginations saying "Hi" or "What's Up". That's the sad truth: chat rooms are usually boring.
But in some rare circumstances, you can really enjoy yourself.
"In real life you're too shy to strike up a conversation with a fellow latte-sipper at Starbucks. But in front of a keyboard you're Miss Mile-a-Minute--no awkward pauses, nervous "ums," or hair twirling." Says US News Magazine.