I am sitting in the den while my husband is in another room on FaceTime with our son. My husband is a surgeon, my son is in residency; they are reviewing a procedure my son will be performing tomorrow via FaceTime. My husband is showing my son some older methods of performing this procedure and they are sharing pictures. While it warms my husbands heart that our son wants his advice, and is willing to learn older techniques that aren’t always taught to the newer doctors, the idea that they can be face to face and in different states is just amazing!
We FaceTime with my daughter that lives in the UK, which makes the lack on in person time more palatable. My aunt is able to see her grandchildren who live out of state several times a week. My mother can chat with my daughter across the pond. The grandmother that can’t attend a wedding, can see the wedding real time. The dad out of town on a business trip can still see his little princess dance in her first dance recital. The options are endless.
We live without Face Time. We use Skype, but rarely, more on vacations. How you find time after work, exercise, other daily things that you want to do after work? And we are not anywhere as busy as surgeon, we are on a regular job schedules, in fact I am done at 3:30pm every day. We are sooo happy when D. (who is also a resident) has a chance to call us over the phone. Just to hear her voice causes almost celebration at out house. The same is for our S. who has 2 very busy teenagers. Many times we simply cannot reach either of them at all. They have bad reception while on a boat (one example).We Skype sometime with relatives in Europe, but not often either, the time difference is an obstacle. Everybody seems to be very very busy, including us…
We FaceTime with our college daughter at least once a week. It really is great to be able to “see her” instead of just talking. I agree, face time is great!!
I’ve never skyped or face timed except when my 86 yr. old mom was here and she facetimed my niece and her baby on her phone.
H has never done them either.
S did not want to skype/factime with us when he was in college and I doubt very much he will want to now that he is graduating. Maybe if/when there is a grandchild.
Things we have done with Skype with out of town son.
Set it up so son could watch football with us.
Set it up so he could play cards with us.
His friends take him to party’s he is missing.
We set him up at the Thanksgiving dinner table when his plans fell through. ( waited for him to return from Boston Market.)
Set him at the kitchen table when we are all just sitting around and chatting.
We should Skype more. Need to set it up on my phone. He would have loved the concert we went to last weekend.
I got together with some college friends just recently We graduate in 1984. We were laughing about how we communicated with our parents when we were in college. The dorm floor had one phone in the hall. It would ring and someone would randomly answer it, If the call was for you the person would knock on your door and if you weren’t around they wrote a message (hopefully) on a wipe board attached to your dorm door. Remember waiting in line for the hall phone?
We Skype with Europe based D every other week and it does make the distance shorter. She even Skypes music lessons with some of her old students here in LA and last night, since she is visiting us, she Skyped for a full hour with her music director who is currently in Paris. And of course she Skypes every day with her (still in Europe) fiance. :-@
When I lived in Europe as a grad student, I could only afford to call my folks once the entire year.
One of my most recent favorite photos of my mom is of her at my house using FaceTime with my uncle overseas. She has talked to him on the phone but not seen him in several years “in person”. She was in awe that she could visit him literally in the palm of her hand! It’s wonderful.
We also enjoyed the app Viber on our recent trip overseas. Allowed us to message, video chat and send pics when in wireless at no cost to our family. Amazing and wonderful!
Our daughter joined us for Christmas on Skype from China. Skype also let her keep in touch with her then 3yr old nephew. He knew who she was when she came home. It was great!
Honestly I think the first few times D called from college we FaceTimed so she could show off her room, but then after that we stuck with regular phone calls. But - if people like to do it, more power to them!
Viber is a good app for international phone calls.
I’ve never talked to anyone using any of these technologies, except at work. My male children use technology to see other people, but not me. When grandkids come, many years from now, it will become very important to me.
We don’t FaceTime either. I like hearing the voice of others but don’t necessarily care about seeing them, and I really prefer they do not see me! Maybe one way FaceTime would work for me I love texting–it seems much less intrusive to me. Then again, this could all be because I hate talking on the phone.
I can see the advantages for those of you with kids/grandkids (especially!) far away.
we have been called by D on FaceTime a lot more recently. you get used to it and it is fun. we used google talk before that. it does seem better than phone calls and more mobile than google talk
We literally could not live without Skype. My S does an independent study in Latin for high school credit and does the class via Skype 3 times a week with his teacher who lives in Boston. If H or I am traveling during scheduled school conferences for one of the children, the traveling party participates via Skype. The teachers do not seem to mind. When my S needed a titanium plate put in his wrist from a hockey injury, I “skyped in” H when the surgeon was explaining the procedure. I would be lost without it.
No one is forcing you to use it! It’s a great option for those in good situations to use it.
Don’t forget Facetime or Skype as a wonderful way for older people to connect with family far away. If you can set up a session for an elderly parent with someone far away you can be rewarded with an amazing moment when they “see” their loved one on the screen.
I love texting–it seems much less intrusive to me. Then again, this could all be because I hate talking on the phone.