Merry (remote) X-Mas — or any other holidays
This year was full of challenges, many social obstacles, and we had to adopt new behaviours almost every other month — even in the fast track technologic ever-changing world we’re already living in, this year brought the most changes to all of us — across the globe.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
So we’d like to get together with our family, relatives, friends and other on Christmas (or the holidays in general); but not this year: no one really would like to spent 10 days at least in quarantine (especially if your family lives abroad — like my mum: which would result in 10 days quarantine at each location), no one wants to infect their loved ones, yet we would like to celebrate. But how?
Again, technology can be our saviour. Just get out your smartphone, boot up your computer, or use your tablet-computer and call your loved ones with a Video-Call-App (Skype, Whatsapp, Zoom, Teams, you name it).
How the dream of a connected world came true
Already in 1878 the first concept for video calling appliance was dreamed of by the official inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell and was named the “telectroscope” by a French writer Luis Figuier. Almost 30 years later some dreamed of the future in the year 2000 where it would become the new normal to video call your peers. Back then it was not yet possible to think about that the technology would really come true one day.
Yet only 17 years later the first proof of concept was shown to the public audience, which actually worked.
But it still took several decades until the first commercial video telephony systems arrived to the public markets.
Various attempts to market the video telephony systems failed between the 1940s and the late 1960s, when AT&T finally had some commercial success in 1969 and the beginning of the 1970s — the market was not ready yet. In 1974 AT&T decided to pull the products as they thought it was a product way to futuristic for the audience.
Only in Japan of mid 1980s first broad commercial success was measured. Still it took the technology another 20 years to be finally widely adopted by the public audience. In the early 2000s the first mobile video telephony systems arrived and were used by many people around the world. Even hefty price-tags and high monthly fees for network-providers did not hindered the successful development. A couple of years later with Applications like Skype adoption rates increased and people got finally used to video-calls.
In the 2000s video conferencing was also becoming more popular to many companies across the globe, which highly decreased conferencing latencies and brought people more and more together, making the world the narrow village we have nowadays.
But it took another almost 20 years and a global pandemic for casual consumers to really adopt video calls in their private lives. Yes, the smartphone age started in 2007 and many applications support video calls since then, but do people really used this feature? Sure Whatsapp video-calls, Facetime, and so one were already used by people, but more like as an optional fun thing.
Now the year for video-calls to finally arrive to the public came — this year.
The pandemic hit us all, suddenly we had to adopt a new situation; borders where closed, everything was closed — but how can we still connect with our friends, family, and so one? Well: Video-Calls, wether on your smartphone or on your computer.
Celebrate together where-ever you are
It is not only Christmas, we should celebrate every occasion the best we can — and if we’re still separated let’s do a video call.
Get-Together, call your loved ones, grab a drink, cook some dinner together.
This year we could not celebrate together, I could not travel to Switzerland or the other way around, without risking a quarantine or even worse: risk an infection. So my Mum and I decided on having celebrating together via Skype. I put my iPad on a chair, elevated on a Box, and we could get started. Even sitting on the same table. Eating together, clink our glasses, talk, and have some fun together.
So, don’t hesitate: call your loved ones — to not only hear them, but to see them as well. To see their faces, see their facial expressions, and laugh together.
Because seeing each other is way more important than only hearing each other. We are social mammals, we as a species need this. And almost everyone of us has the necessary technology at their fingertips already. And if your friend or family are facing issues setting up a Skype (or any other Service) Account, grab your telephone and guide them through the process.
We can be very thankful for living in times of being ever-connected where we don’t have pay fees per minute. But make sure to have an eye on your data-plan to not early excess your data volume early. Try to be connected via WiFi.
And don’t forget: New Year can be celebrated remotely as well. Sure it’s not the same feeling, but its way better than not celebrate together.
You can also just call your friends, grab a beer together and talk about the last week, things that will happen soon, or any other topic. Most importantly talk to each other.
And please be thankful for our privileges, that we can have the time to think about such, that probably we don’t have to worry about our future yet. Many of our friends, family, and fellow citizens fear what will come next, when will the pandemic end, how to deal with their future angst. Call them and see them digitally, that will help. Because Isolation is one of the worst things for a social being.
Pro-Tip: Enhance your video quality
Get a Webcam (Selfie) Light. Those things are pretty cheap on Amazon, you can get one starting from 9€. And they will make your appearance on video calls much better. When you work in dark environments or just forgot to turn on the lights; the light-ring will bring focused light on what matters — you.
Or put a desk lamp next to your screen to illuminate you better. Because let’s be honest: a cheap webcam light is cheap and you may see that the battery will drain pretty fast, as those things are intended to be used on your mobile device not to professionally illuminate yourself.
Sources & Links:
[S1] Image, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_videotelephony#/media/File:France_in_XXI_Century._Correspondance_cinema.jpg— “Artist’s conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910)”
[S2] Image, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_videotelephony#/media/File:Tage_Erlander_1960-tal.jpg — “Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969)”
[S3 & S4] Image, Personal
Disclaimer: This article is a personal opinion and was not sponsored. All statements may depend on facts but are opinions and should be perceived as such. Also I don’t use affiliate links.
No animals were harmed during the writing process.
Cheers //Patric
