“Ikinagagalak kitang makilala”

For someone who knows only a few words in Tagalog, that one was quite mouthful to pronounce. I tried my best but it sounded pretty funny when I did that. Anyhow, that’s the new word I learned in Tagalog when I was checking out Ome.tv.

During the pandemic Ome.tv was quite a hit in Indonesia and some people were becoming influencers because they were recording their experience over Ome.Tv.

Just in case you didn’t know, Ome.TV is similar to Omegle but seemingly the Russian version of it as you have to use either VK or Facebook to sign up. Omegle is banned in some countries including Indonesia, so you’d require a VPN to try but Ome.TV is not and since it’s less geo-restricted anyone can access it.

So, my curiosity brought me to one of the nastiest places on the internet.

From these youtubers, they always share how they meet “beautiful girls/guys” or pranking content featuring these people they talk to over ome.tv. I am not sure if they’re aware of being recorded and made fun of for content but it’s pretty weird . There is even a female influencer from the country that has a big following and constantly streams over ome.tv and interacts with these people. Perhaps people enjoy this entertaining silly content.

As someone who has quite seen it all on the internet, I was wondering if humanity has changed but my expectation failed me. Since ome.tv influencers were on television and even becoming famous, I am sure that everyone in the country at least was checking out this app. I noticed that a few people even with low subscribers were also streaming their experience with the app. That got me curious and I ended up jumping into the wagon and seeing for myself.

I already knew how Omegle can be that nasty and apparently Ome.tv is no different. It enables exhibitionists of any gender. There’s no filter of interest and there’s only a filter of country and also if you’re male, female or a couple. Although over the ome.tv chat they have rules and you can report someone over indecent behavior, you’re not paid enough to report almost all of the users that you happen to see on it. There are some old people who were pervy and it’s just vile to see that the majority of the users of ome.tv are mostly young people from teen to 20’s. But the influencers that I know of, they made fun of these pervs online and make it seem like a usual thing, which I think it’s not.

But apart from that, there is also another side of the coin where some people learn language and actually talk decently. It’s definitely difficult but at least some people can have a conversation. I saw some people making content on that and when I was there, some people were actually able to have a civil, human conversation.

It was such a strange experience that I don’t think I’d be checking them out again. Once is enough and apparently, nothing has changed.

img via unsplash