The "official" definition of an internet chat room is "a form of Synchronous conferencing" or "computer-mediated communication" but the truth about chat rooms can only be ascertained by knowing the origins of the chat room. Before humans developed the requisite technology to pirate music and movies, they spent their internet time in archaic and chaotic information exchanges known as "chat rooms." Example of a chat room (real example not a joke): Another example of a chat room: