Social Dynamics of a Chatroom

Ok, so I fequently visit a Yahoo chatroom and it's probably the oddest chatroom I've ever been to. The single biggest reason that I continue to go to the chatroom is that it's "local", meaning people from the town that I live in go there, and if you were wanting to possibly meet someone you could do it. There is nothing worse than chatting in a room and seeing a hot chick, start talking to her, only to find out she lives 2,000 miles away.

The second reason that I go to this particular chatroom is because it's truely a virtual-trainwreck. A lot of the people that are "regulars" to the room not only participate in the chat, a lot of them are friends in real life too.. this is where the trainwreck begins. As with any relationship, sometimes it has it's ups and downs. It's interesting because sometimes these chatters will have a falling out, which spills over into the chatroom and these little social circles develop over who is friends with who, who is longer friends with who because of their friendship with another person, etc. etc. I think most of these problems develop because a lot of the regs are women, who tend to gossip. Most of the arguements that occur in the chatroom are about who is fucking who, who is a whore, and who is a bitch. There are a handful of regulars, both male and female who choose not to participate in the fighting, and that's the social group that I belong to.

Another thing that I've found interesting is a feature that the chatroom lacks, which is a leader. Think about various social groups you know of, whether it's the group of friends you hang out with on a regular basis, community organizations, work, etc.. there is usually someone who either by default or through campaigning, that emerges as the leader of the group. I haven't seen anyone like that in this chatroom who has a broad influence over the members.