The Harried Mystic

While initially reluctant, I am now a devoted fan of Skype. The cost for making contact with family and friends across the globe is minimal, and the video capability is a real benefit. My positive view of this technology traces to my son’s departure for college in Iowa, followed by my daughter, and then my son’s decision to move to South Korea to teach for a year. Being a very close family, having them so far away from us would have been very difficult without it.

As I say this, I am especially thinking about the video function. Today was my son’s birthday. I am traveling on business in Barcelona, but a call to his Skype phone made it possible to see and talk to him, wish him well on his special day, and catch up. I am able to do the same in keeping in touch with my wife back home and stay connected to traveling colleagues. All this for pennies on the dollar, so, what’s not to love?

I am, of course, sharing nothing particularly new. Many have used Skype for years, and all this must come across as a yawn to them as it is very much yesterday’s news. In sharing it here now, I do so with interest in the psychological and spiritual impact of  “voip” technology.

I have weekly conversations with executives about the pressures related to the 24/7 nature of mobile phone/Blackberry/ iPhone telephony. There is now no place that the phones do not go. We see them at dinner tables in restaurants, at concerts, Broadway shows, in hospitals, at Church services, and in restrooms. Mobil phones have completely penetrated all public and private places and people complain of having no true down time as there is always a flood of email to read, though few show real motivation to curb dependence on their mobile devices.

My wife was one of the great critics of the cellphone intrusion until she recently became the proud owner of an iPhone. Now, she is a maven of the endless “apps” and can be seen in a parked car, in bed, in the living room, or a doctor’s office, amusing herself with one or another clever game on her phone. We are all quickly learning to live with carpal tunnel syndrome.

I, too, have my favorite apps and know the pleasure of wasting time getting engrossed in them. All of this has a place. The key is avoiding the excess that consumes thinking time and real conversation. We need to manage the technology, not be managed by it. Having said that, voip telephony used to stay in touch, when face to face conversation is just impossible, is a blessing.

Psycho-spiritually, it is a deep comfort to see a loved one: their unique smile, gestures,  and eyes when they speak. Email is altogether unsatisfying by comparison. It raises more questions than it usually answers. I feel the same way about text messages that are easily misunderstood (especially given the culture of new acronyms used to abbreviate often used phrases).

Distances do not seem so great when we can regularly talk by video-phone. The low-cost of Skype also makes real conversation of even hours possible and not the necessarily short mobile phone chats that would cost a fortune when traveling internationally, or the short email bursts that can, at best, only give  quick reassurance. I don’t get twitter, or micro-blogging. It seems to me these short notices of pedestrian activity add little and merely feed the narcissistic need to be “tracked” by others. Or, maybe it too provides a sense of connection in an increasingly fragmented world.

I come back to what seems to me the essential need: use it all mindfully with a clear sense of what value it creates, and watch its addictive properties. In the meantime, viva “la Skype”! I am grateful to be able to stay in touch with my family when on one of my frequent business trips.

© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.