Welcome to the Lounge!
Comparable to the lobby of a hotel, the Lounge is typically the starting point to most users' chat journey on IFC. It's a good place to get a feel for the rooms and determine where to go next. The rooms list icon opens chat rooms which have more specific topics, you can join multiple chat rooms and once and flip back and forth.
Where to next?
Being a general chat room, you'll be in the presence of many peers who are here for different things. Many users join the Lounge with no expectations or intentions, just to purely see where conversation goes and what kind of interesting people they meet. Others are looking for support, they may be going through a tough time and are looking to connect with someone who's experienced the same, so it's always best to be nice and welcoming. Others are looking for advice on specific topics or issues.
Chat Rooms and Social Media:
Free chat rooms are the original social media, before Facebook, Instagram and Twitter existed, there were just online chat rooms. They're still the best outlet for a real-time connection with other people locally or from all over the world. Unlike instant messengers on popular social apps, you can chat to complete strangers and explore outside of your comfort zone.
More personal interaction:
There are two important factors as to why chat rooms with strangers are so beneficial to people who have legitimate issues and real road blocks in their life as to why they can’t open up to friends and family.
Chat rooms offer real-time communication in a private manner and in a disposable way, once the chat content goes out of view it’s gone forever unlike a comment or a thread on a social media site, or even a social app like Kik or SnapChat. Even though you may think the content is deleted, it’s not. Because of this people open up and get more clarity on their issue or concern.
Not having a connection to this person in real life gives you the confidence and freedom to be completely transparent and open, no holding back which gives the other party the opportunity to give you better advice. Deeper and more meaningful conversation can come from a complete stranger than your best friend.