Chatrooms

A chatroom is an Internet-supported forum that allows users to interact with each other in real time. Although chatrooms primarily use words to enact dialogue, Web cameras or graphics can sometimes enhance chat experiences to set moods or create atmospheres. Women who use chatrooms most frequently employ them to maintain existing relationships (especially from a long distance), meet romantic partners, engage in role-playing games, or seek support for problems they may not be able to engage others about face-to-face. While females and males tend to interact in chatrooms in a communicatively similar manner, women particularly use emoticons such as smiley faces to express themselves. Despite the advantages of chatrooms for women, media sources often scrutinize or represent them as highly sexualized and filled with male ...