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So how would you describe yourself at the time?

 

I think I was just — I don’t know — I try to think about why I was doing it and it was probably just exciting. Like, ‘oh my god, I don’t know these people at all, I can do whatever.’ I mean, now that I think about it, it was probably somewhat predatory because they were adults and I was obviously a female child. Even I kept my head above camera so they didn’t see my face. I felt like I was being safe in that regard.

 

 

How safe did you feel at the time on Omegle?

 

I don’t know, I was a little paranoid at the time because I was like ‘oh my god’ — like I’ve heard so many things about people being identified by, like, small unique things in their surroundings. And also, like, they can figure out who you are if you show your face. So I felt like I was being safe in that regard.

 

I don’t know when my first, like, one-on-one interaction was — probably ninth or tenth grade. I ended up dating her, but it was further down the line. This was someone I met on Tumblr. I think what actually happened was — do you remember those blogs that were like, ‘post a picture of yourself and a description of, like, who you are’ and then people would, like, message?

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She messaged me from one of those. And we started talking. That was probably my first one-on-one interaction with an LGBTQ person that I met solely online.

 

We were like, ‘oh, so we’re both queer, and we’re both Asian, like that’s pretty cool.’ And then we just started talking like we already knew each other. 

 

When she came to see me, it was with the added facet that we were also dating, so it was, like, different in that way. But I don’t know. I think that our in-person interaction was really in line with how we interacted online. At that point, we had known each other for so long, and, like, we knew pretty much everything about each other. I guess a lot of people would say that and then they’re, like, totally caught off-guard by something crazy, but we did tell each other everything. There is nothing that made me feel like I should have to question anything.

 

 

Do you think you would handle that kind of situation differently now?

 

Yeah, I probably wouldn’t get into a thing with a person online. I feel like that kind of thing, like that relationship with her, I don’t think that would ever happen again, honestly.

 

But also, I wouldn’t want to put in the effort of talking to someone and then not ever really getting to, like, hang out with them. Not saying that face timing and online interactions aren’t like really hanging out, but there’s something different about meeting face-to-face and body language and all that.

 

I think the Tumblr culture that was around when we were using it was pretty, pretty bad. I don’t ever really feel a need to go back to it anymore.