About midway through last year my roommate turned me on to Skype and showed me many of the great things that it can do. You can keep in touch with people from far away without ever leaving your desk. You can not only communicate with them through instant messaging, you can see them and interact with them through video chats. It was amazing to me as I had never really thought about doing it before but it really me think about how staying in touch with my friends could never be easier. I went to high school around the area but many of my friends decided to go all over the country. I have never been the best at keeping in touch but now I have no excuse, with one click of the mouse I can Skype my friends and see them and talk with them as if they were in the room sitting next to me. I really think that it is an amazing use of technology and it has no questioned changed the way that I communicate with my friends. I never thought that it would be so easy to talk with my friends who are now in California but now I can do it on a regular basis.
I thought that this medium ties very well with the reading in that it is an example of how technology is reshaping space and is allowing me to create m own virtual community. With the click of the button I can reconnect with my friends from high school as if things had never changed. It allows me to stay close to the people I want to without ever leaving my room and without a plane ticket or a bus ride. I am very glad that I was told about Skype and I’m glad that it is making it so easy to stay close to my friends.
It's very interesting the progression that media technology has made. With Skype we can now interact with others and video chat with them on the screen. We don't even need to be present, we can just show up virtually. It's crazy to think that just a few decades ago the computer was not even invented!
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely a valid point that you presented that with the invention of skype there is no excuse for us not to stay connected with friends that are in another state. Also not only has this feature been a step up from the normal instant messaging, but also I think it was a leway for how we now have the ability to make telephone calls and can also view the person with whom we are talking to (iphone 4).
ReplyDeleteSkype really has been an amazing connector without actual face-to-face interaction. What amazes me is that cell phones have only recently adopted this video feature even though it is already so widespread among internet users. Cell phones have always been the primary medium for connecting people to others and it is interesting that this form of communication was introduced online before cell phones.
ReplyDeletePeople often say that communicating over the Internet results in society's loss of interpersonal skills. While this may be true with certain types on online communication (email), Skype proves we still use "face-to-face" interactions on the Net - body language, expressions, etc are all still important using this medium.
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