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Grandma's On the Computer Screen This Thanksgiving

Posted by kdawson on from the candid-webcam dept.

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."

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Rule #34 by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:Rule #34 by couchslug · · Score: 3, Funny

      " *shudders* "

      Next up, 4chan /aarp/ , a great way to keep up with relatives not already on /b/.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  2. Re:No mention of the deaf community? by robot_love · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, I'm not really surprised no one's heard of it.

    --
    .there is enough of everything for everyone.
  3. Grandma's Apostrophe by the_other_chewey · · Score: 2, Funny

    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...