Good.

With the worry about having to put scare quotes around our scare quotes whenever we talk about "good" or "conversation," we choose, instead of looking for exact definitions, to attempt the know-it-when-we-see-it approach.

This brings us to omegle.com. Why? Well the random nature of the conversations possible on a site with a tag like "Talk to Strangers!" offers an interesting way to experiment with what we want out of online conversation. While the site claims--"Omegle is a great way of meeting new friends"--is it? Is that even what we are looking for?

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

Stranger: hi

You: howdy

Stranger: are you one of those creeps looking for girls in here?

You: nope

Stranger: great

You: just a girl in a class about computers

You: talking about whether or not omegle is worth it

Stranger: is it worth it?

You: probably not

You: thoughts?

Stranger: about omegle?

You: yeah

You: ever met anyone on here worth your time?

Stranger: um...

Stranger: no, not really

Stranger: mostly creeps

You: ever had a worthwhile conversation?

You: if not then why do you do it?

Stranger: omg ur right.. im waisting my life in here

Stranger: it's fun to talk to people from other places though

Stranger: it's intresting to get to know people from korea and australia

Stranger: i mean, i would meet them anywhere else

Stranger: wouldnt*

Stranger: so why not in here

You: makes sense

Stranger: yepp

Stranger: where you from?

Stranger: you dont have to answer, i was just thinking of ur spelling

You: Michigan in the US

Stranger: no waaaay

Stranger: lots of snow?

You: too much

Stranger: same here, snowed 10 inches over a night

Stranger: perfect snowboard weather though

Stranger: are you in class?

You: yeah

You: teacher chatting with me nao

Stranger: teall him/her i said hi

You: she says hi too

Stranger: thats great

Stranger: here in sweden its 02:11 am

You: procrastination

Stranger: i guess

You: how old are you?

Stranger: no no no, the question is. how old are YOU

You: 20... I guess

Stranger: so, your not sure eh?

Stranger: im 16

Stranger: well, i should go to sleep

Stranger: good luck in class

Stranger: was this conversation worthwhile?

You: yes

You: I think

Stranger: ^.-

You: have a good night

Stranger: i will, thank you

You have disconnected.

As a bit of a disclaimer, we had four or five conversations before this one where the topic was simply whether or not we were a girl and whether or not we were interested in men. Still, when answering the question--"Was this conversation worthwhile?"--I don't think we lied. One of the great opportunities of the internet is the access it provides individuals to other individuals all over the globe: from Michigan to Sweden. Somehow though, I spend far more time talking to people I know online--from email to facebook--than to anyone else. In better using the opportunities the internet provides, expanding individuals interactions beyond their own circle of friends is good.

Direction

As a high school student in the United States, I was taught that a good way to begin an essay is with a definition; by providing a definition, I was told that I would have something concrete or rather “definite” on which to base my argument.

When writing an essay about a poem, I might have gone to dictionary.com, looked up the definition of “poetry,” and copypasted the first definition listed—“the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts”— at the beginning of my paper. This method worked very well for my four years of secondary education, but its versatility and even veracity came into question early in my university career.

In my first college class on poetry, the teacher wrote the word “poetry” on the board and asked us to shout out things that a poem must have. The class began shouting out ideas—a moral, words, a word, letters, an author—. Once the board was covered in requirements, the teacher went through and showed us one by one poems that did not fulfill each of our requirements.

There was found poetry, spoken poetry, sound poetry, poetry written by computer programming, and my favorite poem of all—“aaple.” “Aaple” had once stirred up all sorts of controversy when Congressman William Scherle decided it was not a word or a poem and thus government money should not be used to provide grants to “poets,” like the 750 dollar grant provided to “aaple”’s author Aram Saroyam by the National Endowment for the Arts (Mikolowski). Quickly I realized that definitions were not as definite as I once thought. Things that considered themselves poetry, things that were worthwhile would have been excluded by the definition I once had.

So for this project we are starting with the general idea of bettering conversation and little concept of what we mean by "better" or "conversation" online. At least we know dictionary.com doesn't have a definite answer?