If anyone can truly appreciate recent advances in technology, it’s the spouse of a deployed soldier. Now when my husband wants to contact me from Iraq, he sends me an e-mail. The e-mail goes directly to my Smart Phone, where I can quickly type up a reply, then reach for my laptop.
Wherever I have wireless internet access, I can open up the video conferencing system of my choice, in my case Skype, and use the webcam and microphone that are already built into the computer to live chat with him face to face, so to speak. If I happen to have left my laptop at home, he can just use Skype from his computer to call my cell phone directly. How cool is that?
Thanks to the latest technology, I’m able to talk with my husband almost every day.
I can’t even begin to comprehend how men and women managed before this convenience. Long gone are the days of a sole dependence on snail mailed, handwritten letters and a soldier’s hopes of catching his wife by the home telephone. Good riddance!
And for those of you who made it through those times, who stuck it out with communication far less often and far less dependable, thank you. Your sacrifice is invaluable and incomprehensible to those of us who will never again have to go through this without the wonders of the internet and mobile phones.
Since I have a vested interest in communications advancement, I’ve been watching and waiting for what they’ll come up with next. And although Apple’s new iPad looks great, I’m still crossing my fingers for a teleportation device.