We need to talk. It’s good to talk and we become closer as a result of it. Arguments are resolved, situations become clearer, love becomes easier, heck, there would be a hell of a lot less wars if more people indulged in the practice of communicating their needs.
During the first few million years of life on this planet, humans always found a way to get the message across to another person. Lord of the Rings showed an impressive way that people communicated long before all our wonderful technology arrived on the scene today. To get an important message from one end of the country to the other, they lit fires atop mountains. Watch it, and I promise you’ll be awestruck.
Over the past few centuries technology has enabled us to go a just few steps further. When Alexander Bain brought the fax machine onto the market, people were overawed; it was as mind-numbingly impressive as Bell’s telephone. Since then, an impressive upsurge of inventions in mechanical machinery and technological wizardry has risen out of the ashes of those camp side fires, inventions that ultimately help us to get in contact with each other. They can’t all be listed here, but we are all very aware of how Bill Gates’ empire could encourage practically anyone to topple a government with a single email.
Now, just for a paragraph, allow me get all biological here. As I am a person who has studied nutrition I have learned of the marvellous feats of accomplishment happening on a day-to-day basis within the human body and, ultimately, how each organ interacts with another. While on this subject, if I call to mind another film, Tom Cruise’ War of the Worlds, you might remember the opening scenes and see better where this detour is heading, the opening scene where cells are shown interacting with each other and the closing scenes where cells are likened to the stars in the midnight sky. Like the trillions of stars, we are beginning to learn there are just as many cells, all interacting through one method alone: light. Light, as many know, plays a big part in communication. If it weren’t for light the stars wouldn’t shine, our cells wouldn’t talk to each other, fax machines couldn’t send images through wires and mobile phones wouldn’t be able to send your voice to the satellites and back and still sound like you.
So what does this tell us? That we need to see in order to hear? Yes, and no.
You see, telephones, fax machines and emails are all fantastic tools, but you can’t actually see the person you’re communicating with. And that’s where this very latest technology comes in. With it, we’re heading for another revolution, just like Bell’s telephone, or Bain’s fax or Gates’ PCs – it’s a revolution that will bring the world closer together. It already is. A prison service has uses it to allow dad’s to send messages to their children, a superstore uses it to help their staff communicate easily, even a famous restaurant chain uses it to promote their service to a wider audience. So what is it? It’s live video streaming and, as you can see, it has already found a niche with many quick thinking individuals. Apart from being able to allow people to see each other for the first time in a very long time through sending videomails to family, friends, forces personnel, university students and those who’ve been sent abroad to work - it already has a particular advantage in that it can put a stop to deceitful people luring children while hiding behind emails on the internet.
It is proving to be one of those bright new technologies that will be around for several generations to come. It is a newly emerging technology and with it we can see and hear better what people are saying. There’s no ‘netiquette’ involved (i.e. you don’t have to write in capital letters in order for your anger to be taken literally), there’s no need for grammar or Spelling B awareness. There’s no need to deal with cumbersome downloads or complicated attachments, there’s not even a need to be computer savvy! In fact, it’s just like picking up the phone and dialling a number, but seeing the person you’re speaking to. It’s all to do with sending your personal image and speaking voice across the world easily, quickly and cheaply. So, I urge you to light the beacons, be awestruck by this brand new easy to use technology and get in touch with someone you haven’t seen for a very long time - use it to your advantage and send someone you haven’t seen for a while using tomorrow’s technology today – by sending a Videomail.
