Off the Wall: Beyond Facebook

A catharsis for the inner (or outer) artist, DeviantArt is the largest online community showcasing user-made artwork. Ranging from Flash games, novellas or doodles on the margin of binder paper, it’s where the unknown artist can make a name for himself before dying a premature, poetic death.

At Fanfiction amateur writers base stories off thewishful thinking of what should have happened. For example, unsatisfied “Twilight” fans can reinvent their own alternative endings where Bella dumps Edward’s cold, sparkling butt for Jacob.

Blogs, short for web logs, are journal entries of users that break down the limits of geography so that a middle-school girl from Sweden can read about an American college student’s crappy morning commute.

Through reading the intimate details on the life of someone they have never met, users befriend strangers.

Tumblr, for example, is a blogging medium through which users post easy-to-digest forms of entertainment with its “reblog” feature. The only downside to Tumblr is its Facebook-like addictiveness.

ChatRoulette may not be able to help you get girls, but it does offer alternatives by using the blind date strategy to randomly assign video chatters on its site.

“All guys are there to see boobs,” junior Terrence Cape said.

Users take advantage of anonymity to behave liberally. Junior Martin Merencillo participated in a dance battle with his chat partner, when “[he] just started dancing and the person started dancing back.”

“I’m like ‘damn’ and we just danced on the Internet,” Martin said.

For the extrovert who yearns for an almost face-to-face chat with other bored individuals, ChatRoulette is there. Just ignore the occasional dick who flaunts his body parts, of course.