iSight

When we were traveling during the Martin Luther King holiday weekend I was fascinated with Josh and iSight.  Fred is looking to expand Josh’s horizons at home. 

We’d come back to the hotel room and he’d get on line with his pals.  Not only would he have IM going, he’d be doing a whole video thing with his friend Ben.  They were discussing writing a new song and a variety of stuff.  Ben’s brother was jumping up and down in the background which was hilarious.  Eventually his Dad came by and said hi to Josh, where are you etc, hi to the family but Ben has got to go.  I said on the bed and watched the whole thing.  Truly amazing.

These kids can have a variety of kids in their chat room on video.  Again, another reason to communicate with your kids about the latest technology.  If you tell them they can’t use it, guess what, they will use it anyway when you aren’t looking.  Sort of like people at work playing games on the computer and just minimizing it when someone passes by. 

What I found amazing is the instant access of one on one (or more) face time.  When I grew up, we never talked to our friends on vacation.  Really didn’t stay in touch with most of the kids from summer camp unless they were you absolute best buds.  The kids that were your best buds kept in touch through the telephone.  That is when phone bills were through the roof.  I remember my parents getting phone bills for a couple hundred dollars a month and freaking.

Now everything has changed.  Access is free, instant communication is out there, post something and it stays on the web for eternity, no thought processes when sitting down to write a letter to a friend just complete instant gratification.  It is an interesting phenomena and how that will affect these kids growing up in this generation is yet to seen. 

I, for one, think it is awesome.