Chat rooms - yay or nay?

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What do you think about public chat rooms? Do you ever use them? WHen I want to talk to friends I usually resort to my own real life friends, but I know many people that frequent chat rooms for their need to talk and socialize. There are many places out there where you can chat with lots of different people. You can even specify what is your main purpose for the chat - friendship, men looking for women, women looking for men,men looking for men, women for women... well the list is big :)- I have nothing against it, but I learned very early on my adventure trough the internet that certain things can be really dangerous. People seem to feel safe wrapped in the anonymity and often disclose more personal information than they should. I have a few friends that although were lucky in a way, really suffered from the consequences of offering too much personal information. From people tracing them, calling at unacceptable hours , appearing at their door step.... Of course much worse can happen, that's why I said they were, in a way, lucky. Another trend I find much in chat rooms is that a lot of people are turning to them looking for love , for a relationship. NOthing wrong with this either, in theory, but people being what they are - just human - this creates incredible situations. One of my friends started and ended hundreds of relationships through the internet, people she met in chat rooms. Each time she tells me " this is it. This person is the one I"m looking for." often she ends up meeting the "person she is looking for " . Ooops I'm afraid things are not always as they seem. It's so easy to sound nice in a chat room....Again, she has been lucky, so far. Other than having one of them defaming her all over the net, another one sending rude and inappropriate emails after their relationship ended, and other small things like that, nothing else happened to her. But it could. ANother downside of finding for a relationship in chat rooms, is actually how easy it is. And the fact that not everything is what it appears. The number of people falling in love and leaving their spouses for someone they met on a chat room is high. The outcome is not that positive either, after messing up and realizing the their internet soul mate actually isn't, then they find themselves alone, or trying to get back into a marriage that doesn't exist anymore. I've actually witness this long time ago, even before chat rooms became so popular. I was invited by a friend to this great chat. She was such a fun person that I thought it would be kind of interesting and I did. It was nice at first. General conversation, nice people, lots of laughs. Among the many users there was a couple. They seemed nice too, and as explained by a close friend later, their marriage seemed fine. However, people are people. It's easy to feel attracted to new people, new things - the grass is always greener.. and all that :). The fact is that it was easy - even for me that don't notice most things in front of my nose most of the times - to see that there was a special bond between the husband and another female that used to go there as well. HUsband ended up leaving wife of 11 years to go meet this new person in Brazil. Of course real life is not the fantasy land that sometimes looks and he was back in Portugal a few months after trying to get his marriage together agaain. I don't know all the details because I stopped going to the chat by them. But apparently the attempt to rebuild the marriage didn't work to well and he ended up attempting suicide. I know of many other cases and even entire web sites dedicated to provide chat rooms for married people that are looking for affairs. Again I have nothing against that as long as both parties agree with this, but it upsets me when, as the majority of the cases is, the other side of the relationship has no idea of what 's happening. Of course these are just some of the negative sides of this question. Many people do find good friends in chat rooms, and many people have positive experiences. But just to be on the safe side, I stay awaw... actually that's not true. I don't go to chat rooms because I don't have a special need to make new friends. I have many already. What about you? Do you go to chat rooms? What do you think about them?