I've always hated Omegle, but my online friend forced me to do it, since she thinks it will help my social anxiety.

I had to send her screenshots as proof.

As much as I didn't want to, I had no choice. I was too scared to do the video chatting so I did the text chat instead. This is how the conversation went:

Stranger: Hey

Me: Hello.

Stranger: Wyd?

Me: Just programming, you?

Stranger: ur a programmer?

Me: Yes :)

*Stranger has disconnected.*

I'd kill to meet a female programmer someday (there aren't many in my country), he might have been confused by programmer and hacker.

I guess that person was more scared of you than you were. 😅

I have always hated these online talk to a random stranger chat things

@HRT-713 Oftentimes I feel like programming has stunted my social skills to the point where I don't have a love life. And, as someone else pointed out on here, anyone who doesn't program won't understand why all you do is sit with your laptop all goddamn day.

@HRT-713 Yes, that is most likely the case. Green text on a black background scares your fellow sheepizens.

Found a phony. ;)

@Michelle C# or C++. Unity or Unreal

@mgagemorgan I already know which programming languages are used. I was testing him to make sure he's telling the truth. Btw, Unity and Unreal aren't programming languages :/

@Michelle No. They're editors that are used in conjunction with C#/C++.

@mgagemorgan Yes, I know.

Oh..

NOOOOO IM WEAK @Michelle

@mgagemorgan
Me too lol xD

@Michelle I went on omegle once. Never done it again. It is a horrible place. Social Anxiety requires you to talk to physical peeps regardless of how hard it is.

@ThaOneDude
I thought online would work. I can't do it IRL. Someone, I can't say how I know them, forced me to have a conversation with random strangers. I either ran away from them or started crying so online is easier.

I met a software engineer and was about to mention devRant but he hung up when I asked if ALS is a framework, since I have no idea what it is.

@Michelle Jesus Christ what an asshole...I hope not all of us are like that... :-'( #ForeverAlone lol

@mgagemorgan
Not the ones on devRant lol. The other ones are jerks. I think I'm done for today, I'm not doing that again haha.

@Michelle My sister tried to get me to do shit like that...there are like three other apps that literally serve the same purpose...and I don't understand the point of using them.

@mgagemorgan
Majority was just bots anyway. I have no idea why my friend thought it would work, but it did nothing to help.

@Michelle Yeah...the only way to know for sure that the other end "can't fail the Turing test" is to call, which...to my knowledge...bots can't currently do video chat.

I found my long distance girlfriend there, she reads the Readme of every release and tries to learn to code just to make me happy, if u have the right tags in omegle then it's fun m8.

@Michelle u won't find bots If u have right tags, I met my girl in depression tag :(

@Alice is right tho...don't be a sheep. I didn't have Snap for the longest time because people kept telling me to get it. Then, on my own terms, I tried it out.

ASL/ALS stands for Age/Sex/Location. You must be super young... Or I'm getting old.

Regardless, to quote Ben Kenobi, "Omegle? I haven't heard that name in a looong time."

@Alice
You're completely right. But don't forget that I'm a submissive doormat, so denying her isn't as easy as it seems.
But I really need to stop doing what she tells me. Fortunately she lives across the country, and it's online, so it'll be easier. :)

@RiderExMachina
Oh... I must've seemed like an idiot by asking if it's a framework lol.

@Michelle
He probably thought you were trolling

@HRT-713 This 😭😞

@mgagemorgan chatting with bots and people and you don't know which is which in advance is pretty much a Turing test

I don't know that omegle thing but it hast to be an AI testing service

@mgagemorgan Yeah I know and as a 16 year old it's hard, considering all my friends *aquaintinces* have girlfriends and all I do is third wheel

Omegle

Me : hi how are you?

Stranger : Hey ASL.

Me : 26 Male.

Stranger disconnected....

well... that escalated quickly

@HRT-713 It's funny how so many male developers/programmers wants to find a girl/woman who also programs.
I'm the complete opposite of that. The less interest she has in software development the better. I'm a geek enough as myself, I need a counterweight to pull me away from my computer, and who I can talk to about everything else besides development.

@Nanos
Are you having a conversation with yourself? .-.

@Michelle Dont judge.

@ThaOneDude
I'm not judging, I'm just asking. I talk to myself all the time, so if I'm judging, then I'm practically judging myself too. -_-

@404response the only one I liked was Reddits Robin April fool's where people vote to stay merge or abandon

It seems that we devs have always struggled with talking with others. I know that here around are a lot of groups, so, why won't we create "Yet Another DevRant Chat"? 🤣

@Nanos Yeah, we, humans, want it or not, are social beings, and nowadays, that the seek of approval it's more "at reach" than ever before, we get troubled by trying to "be good" in the eyes of others.

I can relate, because I don't like people watching me when I'm sad, so I put a "fake" smile, but just because those things are something I want to discuss with people I feel close and that "care" about what I'm saying or feeling.

@Nanos I think chats will always be biased because most men will go into them searching to be the "White Knight" of the room 🤣

@mgagemorgan To be exact, Unreal and Unity are primarily game engines, not just editors.

@nhll Yeah that's what I meant. Not too invested in either, if you can't tell :P

@oo92 I'm feeling quite old school by staying faithful to good ol' professional porn for a wank now

Just throwing in my two cents here: I think they're just trying to help you, though, as can be seen here, social anxiety can't be solved nilly-willy just by talking to strangers, so you should let your friends know.

I used to have social anxiety too, and it just went away with time and continued interaction with peers. It'll go away too, don't worry. Having a group of friends who are programmers too can help a lot :)

@CrippeD
I don't think it will ever go away. Ever year I get worse and worse, and when I'm extremely overwhelmed I ended up crying (it happened during a presentation in US History class).

Hopefully it does tho. Thanks for the advice. :)

@Michelle If you want to actively act on that, you might want to see a professional. However, as long as you keep on trying, like, making an actual effort to do away with anxiety, it'll go away in time.

It might help to remember that you are wonderful person, who is amazing at coding. Get your confidence up, and remember that you're just as good, or even better than other people!

Have a good day :)

@CrippeD
Thank you so much. You are much too kind. I appreciate it. :)

@Nanos

I suppose its different for everyone. My social anxiety was caused by bullying and the feeling of inferiority that came with it. So, in a sense, I had control over it. Unlike in your situation, I suppose.

However I believe it's entirely up to the person whether the anxiety will go away or not. You may have no control over your problems at the moment, but you always have control over anxiety. It's only a matter whether you're willing to take the reins or not. This is just my take on the topic however, and I don't know the kind of things others are going through, so take it with a grain of salt.

Bottom line is, this is a sensitive topic and everyone has different views on it. I'll just pray that everyone going through something like that will be happy, at least.

@Nanos

Sadly, there's no definitive guide to that. It depends from person to person, I guess?

For me, it was facing my social anxiety issues head-on, and constantly going out of my safe zone. In the end, I always emerged with new tools to help deal with potential problems in the future, and all the fear and pain I felt was worth it in the long run. It's a very "brute force" way to solve my problems, and while it worked for me, it may not for others.

I suppose the one thing that applies to everyone is know your strengths, and play accordingly to it. Oh, and never mope and whine about your problems. It doesn't help you, nor the people around you. I can't count how many people I've seen rant about their problems and yet take no action about it. Whoops, that's two now lol.

@Nanos

Holy cow, m'dude, where the heck did you used to live? I've been beaten up before, but never that often. Plus I took some self-defense lessons sincr I was a small boi so it never became a real issue for me...

To be honest, physical violence was never a problem for me? I used to love martial arts (before they became boring for me :p) so they're actually part of my safe zone? By "going out of my safe zone," I meant I constantly took on challenges I've never really done before, trying new things, meeting new people, and other such things that I've never really been comfortable with.

Anyways, as I said, it's different for everyone. I live in a whole other world than yours, so I can't really tell you something that turned out for the worse for you. It's different for everyone.

@Nanos

Also, I know how great it is for someone to tell you what to do, but in reality, there's never a definite solution that someone else can come up with. YOU know your problems, and it's up to YOU to come up with a solution. People can give you advice, sure, but nobody can truly tell you what to do since they're not in your shoes.

The moment you rely on others to solve your problems for you, you lose control of your life.

Anyways, that's just my conjecture. As I said two times now in the same post, everyone's different, and as it is clear now, you are very different from me, or at least your situation is. You do you, m'man. Just do whatever makes you happy :)

@Nanos

Those are some really good points, however, I have a few things I'd like to say:

For the first one, no matter how much you tell people, it will never be enough to give them a good enough perspective on you that can suitably answer your problems. They can't feel, think, and act like you do. And because of that, their answers to your problems might be wholly unsuited for you. Advice is the best someone else can give you.

For the second one, well, that's a very optimistic view of the whole situation, and I like that! We need more optimism ib the world. However, in the other side of the spectrum, having others solve problems for you is quite addicting. Some tend to rely less and less and begins to get a habit of clinging to others for support. And once those who help them are gone? They are left too weak, too rusty, to reliably stand on their own two feet again. It's like a drug. Even in the few years I've lived in the world, I've been involved with people who had this problem.

@Nanos

Also, did you get involved in some gang, fraternity or something? Because that's not something thay just happens to your regular 'ol programmers...

Or at least, I think they don't?

I dunno, I'm still.just a student. I may have gone through a lot of shit in my young life, but Imwstill young nonetheless, so there are a lot of things I don't know.

Which is why I must remind you to take everything I say with a grain of salt lol.

@Nanos

Well, if they get more mates on their side, you gotta get yours too, right?

The first time I stood up to a bully was when I knew I was practically untouchable. Made a lot of good connections with the right people. So they can't really declare war on me without getting hurt very very badly. And not in a physical way.

Also, that's only for simple problems. And those have a definite, broad solution anyone can do. However, by the way you seem to say "Is there a definite guide to that?" Seems to imply that you're looking for a solution to a problem that can't be solved easily.

@Nanos

As I said, you're doing it the right way. And that's not having others solve your problems for you, it's letting others help you solve your problems. Those are two entirely different things. Letting others help is a must. Letting others do it for you is a no-no.

@Nanos

The trick is to form the necessary connections that they won't want to get violent with you :)

Also, I think the answer to "You must have mates first to do that" is quite simple. Also also, learning how to survive by yourself is a must, but didn't you also say that you should get help from others? ;3

Also, it seems we're turning to a whole new page here. So now instead of it being a question of whether someone can provide you a definitive answer to whatever problem you're facing, now it's a question of whether someone can find a way to give an answer within the bounds of your limited pool of resources. So I suppose the whole "letting others solve your problems" issue is solved now? Because it's just about seeking answers from others in an unfamiliar situation, which is an entirely different spectrum.

Anyways, I don't have the answers you're looking for, neiyher do I have the experience to give even an idea as to how to solve it. And I need to sleep so good night!