What was life like before Skype?

If you or someone you love lives a long distance away- then you probably know the phenomena that is Skype. Let's face it.. it is amazing. For free, you can talk to your family in NC or a friend in Australia or your boyfriend or girlfriend studying abroad. Face to face (well, computer screens to computer screens), live conversation at the moment it is happening. I LOVE SKYPE. Seriously, since I've moved to Holland, I've had the privilege to keep in touch with my Mom (even on days she's stressed out yelling at me to come home..), my Porter who I get to see and take snapshot pictures of as he gets bigger and bigger (almost 2 years old, and quite the handsome Weimaraner!) My Grandma, who I'm not entirely sure understands the concept but loves that she can see me and know that I'm doing alright. My cousins who I could talk to for hours and hours (we need to plan another skype date soon biatches.) My best friends Katie and Jenn, and Katie even created a Skype account for her New Year's Resolution so we could stay in touch while I was gone... and this really great guy who I keep in touch with when we can't be together. Last night I had a Skype date.. after a couple of hours of laughing and talking, I realized just how much I've grown to appreciate Skype and how big of a part of my life while abroad it has become. But then, I reflected on how technology on a whole has made this process so much more different than if someone had done it 40 years prior. Facebook and email, gmail chat, Skype- the entire time I've been away from North Carolina I've been able to stay in touch with my family and friends, and even people I don't care to stay in touch with (I really should filter my FB friends, some posts and pictures are just ridiculous). I've watched babies grow up, houses bought, engagements, breakups, makeups, blown kisses to my mom from 4,052 miles away, had the best online "date" ever across the English Channel/North Sea.. and I wouldn't be able to do any of this without technology. However, I think back on the days when people sent handwritten letters, how romantic, and yet for one of the most impatient people in the world, how painful it must have been to wait for days, weeks or months to hear back from someone you care about.. even postcards seem so dated. And as much as I love the convenience of technology, the immediate response, the availability.. it saddens me as well to know that my generation and future generations will never be one that writes letters to loved ones. Or telegrams to inform people that a baby has arrived. I mean hell, just wait five minutes after a delivery and pictures of the new baby is all over Facebook..

Regardless of my technology rants, I am so incredibly appreciative of all the means of communication I have at my disposal while here. Especially, when I get to see this face..