Once exposed to certain new inventions, you can't live without them. Some I can take or leave. I've only sent a few text messages in my life and could easily live forever without sending or receiving another. I'm content with a hand-me-down 32" TV my parents didn't need. It has a real tube in it. I don't have time for much TV anyway.
A cell-phone is certainly one of those can't-go-back inventions. When was the last time you said: "I'm waiting at home for a phone call." Despite the fact I don't care much about the quality of my TV, I can't live without a DVR. Not being able to pause or rewind the show I'm watching is barbaric. I never tell my wife I can't help her because I'm watching the game. Rushing to the couch because it's almost 9pm and I don't want to miss my show? Isn't that how cavemen did it?
Skype is firmly on the list of tech my family can't be without. My wife is Czech. Her friends and family are all thousands of miles away, but she talks with her mom more often than I talk with mine. Multiple times per week we have long video chats at my house. My true Jetsons moment was the day I woke up to find my son in his high-chair in front of the computer being entertained by his aunt in Prague while my wife was in the kitchen.
When my wife doesn't want to walk downstairs to my office to call me to dinner, she'll Skype me from her Ipad.
Don't make me live without free computer-to-computer video communication. I also don't wash my clothes by beating them against a stone in the river.
Great post. I think technology's ability to keep us in touch better with friends and family across the world is definitely one of the main positives.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe when I was a teenager my friends and I arranged our meetings from house phones!
When my daughter read the next chapter of the book we were reading to me while I was in a hotel room, I fell in love with Skype.
ReplyDelete