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Grandma's On the Computer Screen This Thanksgiving
Pickens writes "Video calling, long anticipated by science fiction, is filtering into everyday use, and two demographic groups not usually thought of as high-tech are among the earliest adopters — the nursery school set and their grandparents. According to the AARP, nearly half of American grandparents live more than 200 miles from at least one of their grandchildren, and about two-thirds of grandchildren see one set of grandparents only a few times a year, if that. Internet companies are also promoting video chat as an enhancement to standard IM and Internet phone services; for example, this month Google introduced bare-bones video capability in Gmail. Some veterans of the technology fear that the video cam has started to substitute, rather than supplement, actual time together. And no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures in their lives."
Grandma's On the Computer Screen This Thanksgiving
Oh she's on the computer screen alright ... but it's not a webcam I'd want to watch.
*shudders*
Goddamn rule 34!
My work here is dung.
Is /this/ why I keep getting AARP spam?
Eh?
--
BMO
My family is distributed across two continents. We've been using skype for comms, particularly my mum and her grandchildren, for the last four years.
All that's left is a private file sharing site for photos and such, which I'm creating next.
video in gmail would be a nice addition I guess.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
A bit off topic but, it felt I had to comment about the following statement:
"and about two-thirds of grandchildren see one set of grandparents only a few times a year, if that."
I think kids who get to hang out with their grandparents a lot at an early age are incredibly fortunate these days. I think it's a valuable experience for kids to meet and get to know an older generation. And when they get older, it also can make being a teenager a bit easier if you can talk with people who have a strong influence over your parents, but are also not your parents. Only works for the types who have mellowed out with age, not with the types of grand parents who got crazy with age (or were just crazy to begin with).
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
My grandparents are dead, you insensitive clod!
Not that it necessarily matters to "Grandma", but it does seem odd that google is not supporting linux video chat (at least as far as I can determine).
E.M. Forster wrote a story call The Machine Stops in which humans have become so isolated as to live in individual cells with all their needs provided by machinery that delivers everything to their isolated habitats. It is considered weird to actually meet someone in person. It's a great read and the parallels to the internet are a little eerie.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
My biggest issue with video conferencing is that no matter where you place the camera, if you are looking at the person on the screen, to them it looks like you are looking away from them. Put the camera on top of the screen, and your eyes are pointing down from the camera which makes it look like you are lying. Put the camera to the side, and it looks like your thoughts are wandering.
If someone can come up with a camera embedded in the middle of the screen, that would be awesome.
Video calling is more of gimmick for mobile devices IMHO. When 3G first came out here in France, my wife & I got two GSMs that had video calling. We used it twice as a gimmick, then just never bothered again.
It's different in a business context, but there again, the video part seems always to be sued to slow slides rather than faces. Good advice that I've always followed is 'meet the people in real life first' before you try doing anything significant via videoconf - or even a normal call.
Finally, what may propel uptake by the kids and elders is simplicity. My elderly mther did not use Skype until I bought her a cordless skypephone that 'just works' (no PC required).
Webcams and software used to be a bitch to setup and use, and you had to stay stuck to the desktop PC. Plus all the conferencing s/w was incompatible.
Now my kids all have little Asus Eee PCs with Skype/MSM and integrated Wifi & Webcam, so they can wonder about the place untethered and chat with their grandparents and friends 'normally'. Interesting, though, they'll always be doing another thing at he same time - you just don't seem to get the same focused concentration on the other person with video conf.
And no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures in their lives.
Three of my grandparents died long before I was born, and the last one (my grandmother on my mother's side) died when I was a teenager. Pixelated or not, I wish she was still around.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I only saw one set of grandparents about once every 5 years. It seems like having the ability to visit with them on the screen is a bonus, but doesn't make up for grandma making home made cinnamon buns fresh and hot when you get up in the morning.
This is old news in the deaf community, where audio communication takes a back seat to sign languages. Search the web for "video relay services" or VRS.
Maybe for some families, time together is impractical. Webcam time is better than no time.
I've always been sceptical about the benefits of a webcam and thought it a bit of a gimmick. I've just spent four months living overseas and on a whim thought I'd try webcams out with my partner back home. It made a huge difference. I suspect that for people who are using it as a substitute, they're probably people who don't make much of an effort with relationships anyway. They have more to fear than the tech issues.
My parents were abusive. Physically, emotionally, they were out there.
Highlights from my childhood include being abandon 3 miles from home, with the family dog, without a leash. I wound up taking off my shoelaces and using them for a leash.
Another time, they wanted me to eat the tomatoes in my salad. I didn't. I just hate the taste of tomatoes. Things escalated. My parents eventually decided they'd take my leather belt off and whip me with it until I caved.
The list goes on and on.
The classic "holy shit" moment would be when they decided my brother, who was in medical school at the time, wasn't spending enough time with them. So the told folks at the school they thought he was using drugs. He wasn't. But that lie nearly cost him his future career.
I was in my mid-20's before I realized that most kids aren't actively trying to commit suicide to escape their parents. I was one of the lucky ones. I got away, and I got help.
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That was all decades ago. Now, I'm a parent, and I face an awful situation: Do I cut ties with my parents, who are now grandparents? Or do I keep them in my kids lives, but at a distance?
It's not as cut & dried as you think.
If I cut my parents out of our lives, I would face a lawsuit. My parents are wealthy. I'm not.
More critically: If I cut them out, what do I do a decade from now when my kids turn 18, and my parents show up out of nowhere to give them a new car. They'll pull the o'l line: "We wanted to be there for you, giving you birthday presents, but your parents wouldn't let us."
If you have never dealt with someone who has a borderline personality disorder, or who is obsessive-compulsive about winning and quite machiavellian about it, well you are just fucking screwed.
You can't imagine the depths and degrees of the lying and manipulation that go on. It is beyond the comprehension of a sane mind.
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Video chat offers a unique opportunity. I don't have to worry about them hitting my kids. I can supervise, even record & play back, and discuss afterwards what is happening. Where they are lying. How to tell they are lying. What they hope to gain from their lies.
Besides, when they misbehave, it's a lot easier to close the laptop lid than to throw them out of the house. (Not that I wouldn't enjoy throwing them out. But doing so does set a bad example for my kids.)
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As my wife so aptly put it: "It's like going to the zoo. You don't want the tigers to come visit you..."
I was going to rant about the painfully wrong use of an apostrophe on a plural in the title. ...
Until I realised what is meant is a singular: Grandma is
Just to help all those out that had an equal amount of trouble to parse that sentence...
...but it would beat the heck out of the alternative that used to be, 30 seconds per kid-talk fast- on a scratchy phone call because the rates "ma bell" charged made long distance an expensive treat.
While my stepson was stationed over at Camp Taji, Iraq, we would video chat with him over Yahoo Messenger. It works pretty good as long as you have a decent broadband connection.....the quality of his connection would go up and down while we would talk, which would make the video quality do the same.....even then, the voice quality was great..... Was nice to see his face every once in a while using Yahoo.....He's making his way home now and is out of harms way, Thank God! :)
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
And no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures in their lives.
Sure they do. It means their grandparents are getting Alzheimer's.
Pixelated: bewildered, confused; slightly insane; also called pixilated
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
I see lots of pro and cons with this. Children who grow up with virtual grandparents will have a barebones facsimile of the real deal - at least until someone comes up with the "pull my finger" USB attachment. It probably won't be too long until tele-grandma can be replaced by a smart avatar, giving mom & dad a pass on having "the talk" with toddlers. The only question will be who gets to program the personality of "gramps-headroom"? AARP may end up being the Association of Artificially Rendered Predecessors.
My parents heard too much from me about the wonderful things on the internet, including using Net-meeting with an online pal in Australia. I think they were afraid that getting internet access would complicate their lives, so no matter how much I tell them about the convenience of email as opposed to playing phone tag, they won't. Maybe I need to show them Geriatric1927 on YouTube. He got to meet the Queen and all. Anyone else have a case of the stubborns to deal with?
We have used video conferencing on our voice over Ip at work. What was truly bizarre was that the video was apparently ahead of the audio as the guy on the other end giving the presentation would explain that he was just about to do something but we had just seen it happen. It took us awhile before we figured out that the video was about 5 seconds ahead of the audio. I guess even over IP, light is still faster than sound.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
And no one quite knows what it means to a generation of 2-year-olds to have slightly pixelated versions of their grandparents as regular fixtures in their lives.
First of all, I'd like to think that contact with (normal, decent) grandparents in addition to what they may get with one-on-one face time would be good for all parties involved - and grandparents do love pictures!
This story made me think about dreams, though. IIRC, it is common for people who grew up in the age of black and white TV to dream in black and white, while those of us who grew up with color TV tend to dream in color...does this mean that some kids may end up dreaming of pixelated grandparents?
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...
This is an absolute blessing on future generations. I don't usually get so excited but I sort of had a dream like this.
It's a match made in heaven. In the future, bored shitless elders - with aeons of wisdom and humility, virtually incarnated as the little angel/demon sitting on the shoulder of their penultimate biological successor as their own vessel prepares to depart. Helping with math, watching out for cars, that sort of thing.
The young in turn are turned on to the awesomeness of wisdom, experience, and respect at a crucial age, before high school destroys their morals.
It's very Being John Malkovich, it's very comforting. Yay. Maybe we can save this world and become kick-ass people, everyone of us. Let's go guys.
Hi
I've got a six month old, and I wish he only saw his grandparents a couple of times a year. The Mother-in-law has moved from ~200 miles and a ~3-hour drive away (not much in America, but enough to make it more likely to be a "go one day back the next" trip in the UK because of potential traffic delays) to the same town as us. We're now struggling to keep it down to seeing her twice a week.
Having my son see the mother-in-law only a few times a year would be a blessing!
Yeah, offtopic, but... does anybody know how tags actually work? I sometimes see tags which clearly deserve the whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag or suddenoutbreakofcommonsense tag, and I assume that when I enter the tag in, there are probably a ton of others doing the same. Sometime the tag gets on the story, sometimes not...
Then you've got stories like these with crazy tags... I mean, how many people could've possibly thought to enter !gramma and !wronguseofapostrophe.
How do these damn things work? Does anyone know? The engineer in me wants to figure it out.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Grandparents might not have visitation rights.
This is also the reason why rape and child abuse should always be reported no matter how hard it may be at the time. To have the crimes on record so at a later time the system KNOWS what they are dealing with.
Really, talk to a lawyer, they law might be on your side a lot more then you think.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.