Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Grandparents in a Box

The internet really has revolutionized communication. Not only are you reading this blog right now (thanks!), but you can make video calls to people on the other side of the world. For those of us that have family that live out of town, this is really great. My parents live about 2 hours away. We have regular Skype time where they can check in on HumorMD Jr. and see how he’s doing. It’s much better than the old days where I would have to just mail them pictures so they can watch him grow. The entire Skype concept has created an interesting conundrum however. There is now an entire generation of infants that believe they have relatives living inside a computer.
Think about it from my son’s perspective. Every few days he sees a person waving at him and talking to him on a computer screen. Then, the unthinkable happens one day. That same person walks through the front door. How confusing must this be! HumorMD Jr. is too small to really consider the metaphysical aspects of this right now, but I watch him stare pretty hard at my parents when they come to visit. He’s probably trying to figure out how they escaped from the computer.
I’ve even heard from other parents that older kids will talk about this. “Doesn’t Grandpa live in the computer?” Pretty entertaining. It would be even worse if they don’t come to visit as often as my parents do. Imagine watching Grandpa in the computer for a few years and then having him show up in person one day. The Seahorse would probably have to do some overtime work that day (see previous post).

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