Smart Technologies presents - What’s All the Sk(h)ype?
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What’s All the Sk(h)ype?
By Matt Levinson
I think I can finally appreciate what Alexander Graham Bell went through to invent the telephone over a hundred years ago. If you have ever tried to have a Skype call with your parents across the country, you can understand what I am talking about. Bell had to figure out a way to traverse the vast expanse of the continental United States to connect two people on a telephone. Every Sunday afternoon, I have to find a way to have a Skype call with my parents, so that they can speak to and see their grandchildren. I can tell you flatly: we are no further along than the first prototype of the telephone.
First, we have to call my parents on our house phone to let them know that we are going to Skype them. Then, my mother has to go and turn on her painfully slow Dell desktop computer to get it ready for the call. Even though they just made the switch from dial-up to dsl, this can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes. It doesn’t help that my mother has to climb under the desk in the study to dig through the spaghetti wires to plug in the computer. She’s been unplugging all of her appliances in her home for the last thirty years, long before it was fashionable and environmentally hip to do so today. If you have ever seen the commercials with the Slowskys (Fast. It’s not for everyone), you have a picture of my parents.
My mother now calls back to let us know that she’s ready. The big moment has arrived. We make the call. It connects. We are talking live to each other. But, there is no picture for my parents to see. We tell them to click on the camera icon in the lower left corner. They cannot locate it. They push every other icon but that one. They find it at last. Another 5 minutes has passed, but they can now finally see us!
My father sticks his shiny bald head into the screen, marveling, “this is incredible!” We can only see his Gorbachev size mole on his head. My mother tries to wrestle him away from the screen so she can see her grandchildren. He moves away, laughing to himself that he can see his grandchildren three thousand miles away. “Technology, un$%^&*%G believable,” he mutters. My mother admonishes him for using that kind of language in front of his grandchildren. Now it is my mother’s turn. All we see is hair. My daughter asks me, “why is Grandma sticking her hair into the computer?” They are both too excited to hear us trying to explain to them that they need to adjust the camera on top of their computer. The initial excitement subsides, the camera adjusts, and we can at last see their faces.
The conversation begins, in a broken record kind of way. They ask more questions than we can answer, and we can barely make out their queries because their voices chop like fresh vegetables. I thought Skype was supposed to be clear. We tell them that we cannot make out their questions. This does not deter them. They continue with their litany of questions. The kids smile, look confused, but continue to try and tell them about their day, playing soccer, drawing pictures, or taking a hike.
The conversation comes to an end, with my parents utterly thrilled that they could see and talk to their grandchildren. My children, on the other hand, walk away puzzled. My son asks, “Can’t we just call Grandma on the phone next time?” So, my question is, what’s all the hype with Skype? Sometimes, a phone call is the easier route. Alexander Graham Bell was onto something, but he must have had these same frustrations.
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