So while I was on a walk this afternoon (it was sunny and warmish – very pleasant for a walk), I saw a lady in her car waiting at a stop sign who decides, while waiting, to phone someone on her cell phone. And I got to thinking about how I prefer not to be “jacked in” to society all the time like so many people who use their phones 24/7. And that got me to thinking other tech that I haven’t embraced.

The big one that I pondered while continuing my walk, was the Skype/videophone bug that’s hit a large number of folks (including my dear chums, elsaf and judiang). Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool that I could defend my thesis via Skype, but using it to chat with my friends isn’t as much fun to me as AIM or the equivalent. The novelty of getting to see them (and their cute pets) lasts about 2 minutes into the call, and then I’m ready to return to text.

With text chatting, you can leave the room for a bit (nature loves to call when you want to chat with friends) and not miss any of the conversation since it’s there on the screen. With text chatting, you don’t have to be dressed. With text chatting, you don’t slow your laptop down to a crawl. Unless you are using headphones, you can’t really listen to music or TV when video chatting. And the part I like the least, you have to hear what people are saying. I dislike relying on my hearing to stay in conversation. (When I’m chatting in person, I have visual context clues to help.) Chatting is now getting more like phone calls, and I just don’t care for phone calls. (Still, friends are worth phone calls, as are immediate family. I hate all other phone calls.)

So the communicators and video phones from sci fi are here, but I really would have preferred if transporters and flying cars would have made it instead. Until one of these two transport systems come along, however, my best way to “see” my friends is with using Skype (or *sigh* AIM), so that’s how I’ll do it. I’m willing to put on my clothes (and my accessory kittens) and chat with the girls if that’s what they want to do. 🙂