Finally - technology brings us together!

Technology has promised many things over the years, and sadly, very few have actually become a mainstream reality. Sure there's lots of new content being created (webogs or podcasts anyone?) but has any of that really made a personal impact in your life. I'm not referring to how much time you spend blogging, or surfing, or fragging your mates; I'm talking about the sort of moments that you sit back and ponder over, then smile. Tonight was one of those nights.

Tonight my brother an I hooked up with Skype and had a little video chat. Nothing new or exciting about that. However, we both brought the rest of our families in on the conversation and for the first time in over eight months, all eight of us were face-to-face.

It was great to talk to my nephews and sister in law (Kate) and see how much they have changed. Kate recently had laser eye surgery and for the first time in my life, I saw her without glasses; she looks great! The boys are growing so fast and Angus is real live wire :)

It was good for Dave's family to see my girls and Nat for the same reasons. Dave and Kate both commented on how much Emily (my eldest daughter) has grown. This was the first time they saw an animated Elise too; before tonight they had only seen photos!

So here I am, sitting back and pondering how truely wonderful it was to have technology span thousands of kilometres and bring us together. Sure we weren't physically in the same room, in that we couldn't physically interact, but what is being together really about? Isn't about sharing news, experiences and laughter? Emotionally, we could have been physically together and I guess that exactly what a face-to-face technology like video conferencing does - seeing the body language and watching the smiles makes a whole worlds of difference. For once, technology did not disappoint.